DWF has advised Inspired Capital plc in connection with an increased cash takeover offer from Bentley Park UK Limited of 21.5 pence per share, valuing the Company at £47.1m.
On 15 June 2015, Bentley announced its firm intention to make a hostile cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Inspired at 20 pence per share. On 9 July 2015, Bentley announced that Bentley and the board of directors of the Company had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended increased cash offer to be made by Bentley for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Inspired of 21.5 pence per share.
At the time of the first offer, Bentley held 17.1% of the shares in Inspired. Bentley is ultimately beneficially owned by the family interests of Joe Lewis who also own the Tavistock Group investment organisation, the London-listed pub chain Mitchells & Butlers and London football club Tottenham Hotspur.
Frank Shephard, the partner who led the team at DWF said:
“We are incredibly proud to have supported Inspired Capital on this deal. Having acted on the takeover of Ultimate Finance in 2013, we have built a strong rapport with their team and we were delighted to work together to deliver such an important result for shareholders. Our public takeover experience and financial services sector expertise helped us to provide specialist and focused advice within challenging timescales to deliver an outcome for all stakeholders.”
Roger McDowell, Interim Non-Executive Chairman at Inspired Capital, said: “DWF played a key role in supporting the business on this important transaction. The pragmatic and commercial advice given by Frank and his team meant that any obstacles that we faced were overcome without any disruption to delivery. We really enjoyed working together on this deal.”
The DWF team consisted of Frank Shephard, Ben Sims, Matthew Judge and Alasdair Mackinnon (Banking).
Altium Capital, the international investment bank, provided rule three advice to the management team at Inspired Capital.
