Hornby criticises Phoenix takeover offer
The board of Hornby, the Aim-listed toymaker, has criticised a takeover offer from its majority shareholder Phoenix Asset Management, saying its bid to buy the remainder of Hornby’s shares undervalues the company.
Phoenix was required to make an offer to buy the rest of Hornby after upping its stake above 50 per cent last week, and confirmed on Friday it had made an offer of 32.375p per share.
The company said the offer “signfificantly undervalues Hornby and its future prospects”. It said it would write to shareholders with a formal response to the offer in due course, and encouraged them to take no action in the interim.
Hornby has been attempting to turn its business around after a series of profit warnings in recent years. It was forced to raise fresh capital to avoid breaching the terms of its bank loans in 2015, and returned to the markets for a further capital injection last year.
Shares in the company have risen 15 per cent since the start of the year, but Phoenix’s offer price still marks a 61 per cent discount to Hornby’s share price before its most severe profit warning last February.