Tycoon may net £90m
Mar 24 2006
By Tony Mcdonough, Daily Post
REDROW tycoon Steve Morgan, the man who tried to buy Liverpool Football Club, could net up to £90m from the possible sale of hotels group De Vere.
Mr Morgan has a 13.28% stake in the Warrington-based group which yesterday admitted that a mystery bidder had made a preliminary approach, valuing the company at more than £670m.
City sources claim the potential buyer is private equity group, Blackstone, which was also believed to have had an offer rebuffed at the end of last year.
In a statement De Vere said: "Following recent press speculation, the board of De Vere confirms that is has received a preliminary approach which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the company."
If an offer of around 800p a share was accepted then it would net Mr Morgan around £89.6m for his 11.1 million shares.
The tycoon, who started building firm Redrow with just £5,000 in 1974, is reported to be worth around £340m in cash and buttets, a figure that would already include his De Vere stakeholding.
In August 2004 Mr Morgan saw his bid to invest £70m in Liverpool FC rejected after chairman David Moores said the offer undervalued the club.
In 2004 De Vere, which runs 19 hotels around the UK as well as Greens health and fitness clubs and Village leisure clubs, spent £1.3m defending itself against a partial offer from a rebel shareholder group.
GPG Holdings led a campaign to force the sale of the hotels but failed to persuade shareholders to back its bid.
In a trading update last month De Vere said like-for-like sales were up 3.3% in the 18 weeks to January 29 but added that trading had been "challenging" in its health and fitness businesses.
Including De Vere's other interest - distiller G&&J Greenall - the group's underlying turnover increased 4.5%.
In January it got the go ahead to build a 60,000 sq ft office village in Daresbury, in a joint venture with Maple Grove Developments.
The £7m village will feature premium buildings providing individually serviced offices of 4,000 sq ft.
