PSG stake buy prompts offer

PSG Solutions chairman Jonathan Mervis has bought 1.5m shares in the UK's largest private provider of home property searches to conveyancers, forcing a mandatory offer for the remaining shares.

Mervis, who paid 17.125p each for the stake worth £256,500, was joined by non executive director David Holme, buyer of 150,000 shares, and deputy chairman Tweedie Brown who snapped up 60,000, all at the same price.

The shares have now doubled from 10.5p in the last five weeks to their highest since last November.

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Mervis is part of a group, which includes Southwind Limited, Retro Grand, Seraffina Holdings and Groundlinks Limited, that now owns 13.27m shares, or 51.9% of the business. His own stake is 2.84m, or 11.1%.

Southwind, owned by legendary small company investor Bob Morton, has said it's only offering other shareholders 17.125p a share, the highest price paid by the group over the past 12 months, because it has to under City takeover rules.

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