Connells submits firm £112m offer for Countrywide
Estate agency group Connells has upped its offer for rival Countrywide to around £112m, after making an earlier offer was rejected.
Connells today announced a firm cash offer for Countrywide, the UK’s biggest listed estate agent, at a price of 325p per share. That was up from the 250p price floated in November.
The group said it thinks the offer is “significantly more attractive to Countrywide shareholders than any potential alternative proposal under which Countrywide remains a listed company with all the risks and uncertainties that this would involve”.
It said the deal would see all of Countrywide’s lenders repaid in full. It also pledged to invest more after it called “the under-investment of recent years”.
The new offer comes after Countrywide rejected the earlier Connells bid. The company is still weighing up the idea of a capital raise to be underwritten Alchemy Partners.
Connells’s firm 325p per share offer is roughly 124 per cent higher than the share price at the start of November.
David Livesey, chief executive of Connells, said: “Putting Countrywide back on track requires sustained investment and gritty operational improvement over many years.
“Connells is offering a clear vision for the future. Not yet another turnaround attempt based on wishful thinking and flaky financing.”
Countrywide has been contacted for comment.