Investors are braced for a bid of more than £400 million for Britain’s leading cherry-picker company after a Franco-Belgian war intensified yesterday when Thermote & Vanhalst returned with an increased cash offer.
Belgium’s TVH said that it would pay 230p a share and also acquired a further 5.4 per cent of Lavendon to raise its stake in the company to 14½ per cent.
The offer values Lavendon at £391 million and trumps a £374 million, 220p-a-share recommended offer from France’s Loxam, the largest supplier of aerial platforms and powered access units in Europe. Lavendon noted the higher offer but continued to advise shareholders to take no action and said it would make a further announcement in due course. Loxam said it was considering its options.
Shares in the Leicestershire-based company rose by 10½p to 241¾p, giving the company a market value of £411 million, in expectation of a higher offer. Some analysts believe that the shares should be valued nearer 275p.
TVH made a 205p-a-share hostile cash bid for Lavendon last month. It was not recommended by Lavendon’s directors after they sounded out shareholders, including investment fund M&G which holds nearly 20 per cent, who did not think it was enough. Filings revealed that Lavendon’s board had been minded to back TVH until M&G’s refusal to support the bid.
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City sources said yesterday that M&G was not supporting the Loxam bid at the current price and was waiting to see what TVH’s next move was.
TVH’s offer represents a premium of 65.5 per cent to the 139p closing price of Lavendon shares on November 21, the day before its initial offer. The companies are understood to have been stalking the UK business for months.
Loxam has said that a merger with Lavendon would create a European powerhouse behind the two big world players, United Rentals of the US and Ashtead.
