Enterprise captures Century with pounds 79m strike
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.ENTERPRISE INNS, the pub owner, yesterday scooped up its rival Century Inns within hours of making an unsolicited pounds 79.1m bid at the behest of institutional shareholders.
Century executives were suddenly faced with the certainty of being unseated, just hours after the announcement of the paper bid, which offers 0.3942 new shares in Enterprise for every share in Century.
The takeover will mean the departure of Century's executives and the closure of its head office, which employs fewer than 40 people. Enterprise said it would "generally keep all the people running their pubs".
Sources at Enterprise said the bid was a shareholder initiative, led by nine institutions who wanted to see the creation of a pub-owning giant. "We were not interested in a long, drawn-out battle and we made it very clear we would proceed only with their support," the source said.
By this morning, when Century executives learnt of the bid, Enterprise already had undertakings or statements of intent in respect of 44.8 per cent of the company. By 3pm the offer, which values Century at 147p a share, went unconditional.
Yesterday, Century at first said it was considering the offer and promised a statement. By the afternoon it said it would have to delay publishing a statement until today.
In January, institutional shareholders contacted Ted Tuppen, chief executive of Enterprise, after rumours emerged about a deal with Inn Business, another rival. Led by Morgan Grenfell Asset Management, M&G, Scottish Equitable and Norwich Union, the shareholders said they would prefer a takeover of Century. They added that there was more than 50 per cent support.
Enterprise and Century floated in 1995 as separate companies. Both held pubs formerly owned by Bass, but Enterprise ran all its pubs as tenancies rather than the managed houses favoured by Century.
Analysts said that Century, led by Alistair Arkley, had not been helped by its disappointing share-price performance. According to Enterprise, the total shareholder return on pounds 100 invested in Enterprise on flotation was now pounds 327, as against pounds 120 for an investment in Century.
"Whether the board accepts is immaterial now. Unfortunately, companies can end up being run by institutional shareholders and in this case, they want a faster-growing company, which Enterprise is," said one.
Shares in Century closed yesterday at 141.5p, up from 115p. Shares in Enterprise closed down 7p at 373.5p.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments