New Texan bid lifts Quintain’s shares 7.6pc

SHARES i n British property developer Quintain Estates soared to a seven-year high after the board accepted an improved takeover bid from Texan private equity group Lone Star.

Dallas-based Lone Star raised its offer by 10p a share to 141p, valuing Quintain at £745m.

The improved offer came after US activist hedge fund Elliott Advisors, which has built up a 14pc stake in Quintain, said the previous bid ‘substantially undervalues the company’.

‘ The Quintain board unanimously recommends Quintain shareholders who have not already done so to accept the revised offer,’ the firm said in a statement.

Lone Star subsequently said it had secured the backing of enough shareholders to complete the deal. Shares in the Quintain raced to 7.6pc or 10p higher to 141.5p – a level not seen since June 2008.

Quintain specialises in urban regeneration and owns undeveloped land around Wembley Stadium in London. The takeover gives Lone Star access to one of the capital’s few remaining largescale development opportunities.

House prices in London have soared in recent years on the back of a lack of construction and booming ing demand. Quintain ha has approval to build 5,000 homes near Wembley – a project Lone Star plans to speed up should it win control of the company.

When the deal was first proposed in August, Angus Dodd, a managing director at Lone Star, said it was ‘a unique opportunity for Lone Star to gain further exposure to residential and commercial assets in London’.

Quintain shares crashed from a peak of over 450p in mid-2007 to a low of under 4p in early 2009 as the property market collapsed in the financial crisis. It has since bounced back and chief executive Maxwell James has said the takeover by Lone Star would enable the company to build more homes.