Press Release
01 February 2007
McGrigors advises on sale of Eldridge Pope to Marston's PLC
Pub supremo, Michael Cannon has completed the sale of Eldridge Pope, the Dorset-based pub group, for £155.1 million to Marston’s PLC. McGrigors acted for Michael Cannon on the landmark deal.
Michael Cannon acquired Eldridge, Pope & Co. plc ("EP") in October 2004 with the intention of implementing a turnaround strategy for the business. At the time of the acquisition, shareholders in EP were offered a share alternative, which included a cash offer of £1.71 per EP share or the opportunity to continue their involvement with EP by investing alongside Michael Cannon in the bid vehicle through a stub equity stake on the same economic basis. This sale crystallises a value of £4.86 for each share in EP reinvested. This represents a premium of £3.15 to the price at which EP shareholders reinvested and a multiple of 2.8 times the reinvested value.
For McGrigors the deal highlights the strength of its corporate practice group and demonstrates its ability to act on such complex mid-market deals. This landmark deal was the first disposal of a private equity bid vehicle involving unlisted stub equity.
McGrigors' Duncan Holden, who advised Michael Cannon on his acquisition of EP commented:
"This is a cutting edge transaction that has been an exciting opportunity for our team at McGrigors. We very much look forward to having the chance to work with Michael Cannon and PricewaterhouseCoopers again in future."
Gerry Young at PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance which acted for Michael Cannon on the 2004 acquisition commented:
"It has been a great pleasure working closely with the McGrigors team on this innovative deal which has delivered an excellent return to those shareholders who accepted a stub equity stake in Mr Cannon’s bid vehicle back in 2004."
For further information please contact:
Louisa Hollins
Financial Dynamics
Telephone - +44 (0) 20 7269 7108
Email - Louisa.hollins@fd.com
Andy Peat
Financial Dynamics
Telephone - +44 (0) 20 7269 7185
Email - andy.peat@fd.com