
Delancey bid fails to net property firm
Greycoat seeks white knight after rejecting £218m spoilerGreycoat, the property group which part-owns the former NatWest Tower, appealed for a white knight yesterday after rejecting a £218 million bid from a company controlled by financial speculator George Soros.
The bid forced Greycoat to bring forward previously undisclosed plans to solicit buyers due to its consistently lacklustre share price. The company, it emerged, had been planning to raise the 'for sale' sign after reporting its year-end results in May.
Greycoat's chief executive, Peter Thornton, said that Delancey Estates was 'trying to thwart a programme we had already set in place'. He criticised the offer price as desultory.
The move follows the acquisition late last year of a 9.8 per cent stake in Greycoat by Delancey which is controlled by Mr Soros's investment fund Quantum Realty Interfunding. Greycoat has a spread of properties in the City and West End of London.
James Ritblat, managing director of Delancey, pulled no punches when he described the performance of Greycoat as 'abysmal over many years'. He said the enlarged group would have better resources to pursue acquisitions.
Mr Ritblat, aged 32, is the son of British Land property tycoon John Ritblat and together they own around 7 per cent of Delancey.
The all-paper bid offers two new Delancey shares for each Greycoat share. The bid sent shares in Greycoat 31.5p higher to 200p, nudging Delancey's offer price of 201p a share.
The bid represents a premium of 19.3 per cent to the closing price of Greycoat shares on Friday, but more than 50 per cent to November when Delancey began building its stake and sparked takeover speculation.
Mr Thornton said that he had been forced to take drastic action by investors' lack of interest in smaller companies.
'It just isn't fashionable to be a small-cap company and rather than languish on a high discount it is better to let shareholders take the cash,' he said.
Greycoat came under pressure two years ago from combative shareholder UK Active Value Fund to liquidate the business and sell off its assets. It was UK Active that sold part of its stake to Delancey.
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