THE DEAL:
The business of GSH Group plc was founded in 1895 based in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire providing facilities management services for a range of industrial and commercial enterprises.
GSH floated on AIM in 2005 but following the flotation GSH only had a relatively small number of external shareholders and in common with many small public companies there was limited trading of its shares. In April 2009 Ian Scarr-Hall, the grandson of the founder, George Scarr-Hall and majority shareholder, decided that he wanted to take the company private once again and the Board delisted the company’s shares from AIM.
In order to fulfil a statement made at the time of delisting and because of shareholder pressure the new Board of GSH began to seek advice on the most efficient way to offer to acquire the minority shareholdings at a fair value. Cattaneo LLPwas appointed to advise the Board on the various options and then project manage the selected strategy which was for the Company making a Tender Offer for all of the shares not owned by Ian Scarr Hall immediately followed by a Share Consolidation.
The applicability of the Takeover Code to the strategy meant that Cattaneo LLP needed to act as Rule 3 adviser to the Board of GSH, liaising with the Takeover Panel, and also provided the necessary cash confirmation (required by Rule 24.7 of the Takeover Code) on availability of sufficient funding to carry out the Tender Offer.
WHAT OUR CLIENT SAID:
‘The experience of the team shone through as they worked with us to analyse the options available and then manage the process with the Takeover Panel and our funders. The whole project was delivered on time, within budget and with no surprises. We appreciated the advice and assistance we received throughout the entire process from the Cattaneo LLP team.’
Ian Davidson, Group Chief Financial Officer of GSH
