London – LAWFUEL – Law News Network – DLA Piper has advised John Hargreaves, Matalan plc’s founder and chairman, on a recommended offer of the budget retailer for the shares in Matalan not currently owned by the Hargreaves Family. The recommended offer values Matalan at approximately £817 million.
Matalan plc, which was founded in 1985 and is one of the largest clothing and homeware retailers in the United Kingdom. The bid vehicle Missouri Bidco, a newly incorporated company, was formed by the Hargreaves Family for the purposes of making the offer.
The consideration due, payable under the offer will be met out of facilities arranged and fully underwritten by Icelandic investment bank, Kaupthing Bank. The offer will be implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement under section 425 of the Companies Act.
The DLA Piper team was led by corporate partners, Stephen Devlin, based in the Manchester office and Birmingham based partner John Campion with lawyer Nikk Bond who coordinated the legal advice to Missouri Bidco throughout the transaction. Real Estate and Banking partners, Martin Hallam and Matt Morgan, assisted by Carolyn Blanchard advised on the property and financing aspects of the transaction.
Stephen Devlin said: “We are delighted to have been able to advise the Hargreaves Family on a major deal that had to be completed against a very tight timetable.”
“Under UK takeover rules, John Hargreaves had until midday Wednesday 11 October, to announce a formal offer or drop his bid and the team at DLA Piper performed tremendously well to pull all the threads together to meet this timescale.”
