? Poultry entrepreneur agrees �342m cash takeover
? Bid trumps agreed merger with Greencore of Ireland
Ranjit Singh Boparan, the chicken entrepreneur who supplies processed poultry and ready meals to supermarkets, tonight agreed to buy Northern Foods, owner of Goodfella's pizzas and Fox's biscuits, for �342m in cash.
Two months after agreeing a "merger-of-equals" with Ireland's Greencore, Northern Foods has succumbed to a much higher takeover bid from Boparan's company, West Midlands-based 2 Sisters.
The chicken magnate's 73p-a-share offer is intended as a knockout blow to ensure Greencore walks away. It represents a 54% premium to the 48.2p-a-share implied value of Northern Foods' all-share merger with Greencore, which had been agreed but not completed. The Greencore deal would have created an industry leader in chilled foods and sandwiches with total sales of �1.7bn.
Boparan's offer is 61% higher than Northern Foods' share price just before the deal with Greencore was announced in the middle of November.
Anthony Hobson, chairman of Northern Foods, said: "The bid from Boparan is a compelling opportunity for our shareholders to realise a cash exit."
The offer from Boparan, who last year bought the Harry Ramsden's chain of fish and chip shops and has built a 6.6% stake in Northern Foods, ends a month of uncertainty. On 22 December, Boparan said he was considering a rival offer to Greencore's but stressed there was no certainty of a bid. Two weeks later, the Takeover Panel gave him a deadline of 5pm to "put up or shut up".
This required him to either table a formal offer by the deadline, or walk away for at least six months. However, the Takeover Panel took the highly unusual step of granting a last-minute extension to its deadline, giving Boparan until 7pm to clarify his intentions.
As an independent company, Northern Foods, whose main business is in supplying ready meals to supermarkets such as Marks & Spencer, is facing a pension shortfall of about �25m a year.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/22/boparan-buys-northern-foods
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