Abbey extends its deadline for offer

HOME builder Abbey has pushed back its deadline for acceptance of a take-private offer by the Gallagher family, the majority owners of the group. It intends to delist on April 30.

Before Christmas, Abbey announced its plans to end its stock market listing, having floated in 1974.

Its listing had long been seen as a curiosity amongst the investment community, especially as the Gallagher family continued to raise their ownership of the firm to about 95pc.

Executive chairman Charles Gallagher had always insisted that maintaining a stock market listing gave the company flexibility in terms of financing options. But the company hadn’t raised funds on the market since 1987.

It had attempted a take-private in 2012 when the Gallagher family lifted its stake in the business to over 51pc at the time, triggering a mandatory offer. That offer, which wasn’t ultimately executed, valued the business at about €114m at the time.

The offer initiated last December valued the business at about €364m.

The company said yesterday that as of Sunday, it had received valid acceptances in respect of 2.41pc of its outstanding shares, which represents just over 55pc of the shares not already owned by the Gallagher family via its Gallagher Holdings Limited (GHL) vehicle.

It said it’s extending the offer to March 26 and that it intends to cancel its listing on April 30.

“Given the small portion of shares remaining that GHL do not own and the limited ability to trade in those Shares as a consequence, GHL believes there is limited rationale for Abbey to remain a publicly listed entity, and that the prospects for the business would be improved as a privately owned entity,” it said in December as the cash offer for the business was launched.

Abbey’s main housebuilding market is the UK, but it is also active in Ireland and Czechia. It also has a plant hire business.

In an interim statement in December, it said it had completed 291 sales in the six months to the end of October. Of those, 237 were in the UK, 36 in Ireland and 18 in Czechia.

Turnover at its housebuilding unit was €105.5m in the period, while the group made a pre-tax profit of €26m. In the financial year to the end of April last year, Abbey made a €33m pre-tax profit, compared to €53m the previous year.