Somerfield Share Discussion Threads

[faxxer] 16/10/2005 20:16

warrenbuffet2 I'm sure that the original wouldn't cut and paste without sensible comments attached. Therefore may I suggest that you delete the item and put a link to it instead.
regards

[warrenbuffet2] 16/10/2005 16:13

Livingst mulling bid for Somerfield


By : Rupert Steiner October 16, 2005



LONDON & Regional, the property company controlled by the Livingstone brothers, will decide this week whether to make a counterbid for Britain's fifth-largest supermarket chain, Somerfield.

[faxxer] 14/10/2005 22:38

I'm all for extending deadlines until further notice.
This is the previously undiscovered route to immortality.

The directors of this company have failed their staff and shashareholders.
They have failed to give a good deal to their customers.
The margins on some of their goods have been simply obscene compared with ASco and TesDA.

Recommending an offer below actual NAV of the cacompany is an admission of failure. The bidding parties obviously see a value that the directors cannot. Instead of doing the honest thing and quitting their jerjobs, they prefer to shashaft their shashashareholders and staff, I fall into neither category.
They will kercash in their shashashare options and in some cases retain their jajobs.

So the question is: If they are doing the wrong thing now, have they ever done the right thing for the kercompany and its shashareholders? Has the berbusiness been deliberately stasteered in this derdirection for the past five years?

[hamsterape] 14/10/2005 21:26

Anyone care to comment on this?
Presumably it also re-opens the bidding for anybody else.
Can't see how the Panel can extend the deadline for one particular party only.



Takeover Panel
14 October 2005

2005/39

SOMERFIELD PLC
('SOMERFIELD')

APAX PARTNERS WORLDWIDE LLP, BARCLAYS CAPITAL
AND THE TCHENGUIZ FAMILY TRUST ('THE CONSORTIUM')


On 16 September, the Panel Executive announced that it had ruled that the
Consortium must, by 5.00 p.m. on Friday 14 October, either announce a firm
intention to make an offer for Somerfield under Rule 2.5 of the Code or announce
that it does not intend to make an offer for Somerfield.

Following representations made by the advisers to Somerfield, and having
consulted with the advisers to the Consortium, the Panel Executive has ruled
that the deadline by which the Consortium must either announce a firm intention
to make an offer for Somerfield under Rule 2.5 of the Code or announce that it
does not intend to make an offer for Somerfield should be extended until further
notice.



14 October 2005

[smartypants] 14/10/2005 10:53

Finance has to be confirmed ?
Do you mean that they have been looking at this all these weeks, and now they don,t know if they can afford it ?

[0rient] 14/10/2005 10:42

Finance has to be confirmed....this will happen later in day....then it will trade 145/147 :)

[smartypants] 14/10/2005 10:31

Ok, so you have an offer of £1.97, yes ?
So you are trading/selling off at £1.92 ????
Because.................?

[cheekycharlie] 14/10/2005 09:56

197p, subject to this and that. Gone down like a lead balloon in the city by the looks of things.

[kingdwg] 13/10/2005 09:24

According to today's telegraph they're close to an agreement.

[irenekent] 13/10/2005 08:59

I am amazed that there does not seem to be a hint of what the outcome of these protracted negotiations will be. It is obviously on a knife edge.

[woodsman2004] 10/10/2005 11:39

Surely the question that we should be asking is, when a bid is made (be it 195, 200 or whatever), what would the stock price retreat to if the bid is rejected out of hand by the management? 150 pence IMHO. So if you are an institution and you are offered 200p today or 150p tomorrow with limited growth prospects, I think I would want the opportunity to vote on it.

Presumably, Apax would be unwilling to go hostile. I still have a sneaky suspicion that the board want a deal - not least because it will make them a shed load. I think it is pretty clear that in today's ultra competitive supermarket business, SOF do not have the critical mass to trade themselves upto to an acceptable profitability level. The only way to release the value inherent within their portfolio is a break-up of the group with the stores being sold odd in lumps to various competitors who would otherwise not be able to make acquisitions of who companies for competition reasons.

[kingdwg] 10/10/2005 08:59

Yes thanks for that sharw I did note the up to bit. I always thought this one was worth a good bit more but this morning's press doesn't seem hopeful.

[sharw] 09/10/2005 21:05

kingdwg - be careful - the article you refer to does not say 200 per share, it says UP TO 200.

Now have a look at:



Reading all the papers together, IMHO the most likely scenario is that they bid 195, the board puts out a rejection statement that this seriously udervalues the company and they go away happy in that they have been seen to have at least put forward a bid.

Whatever, we shall know by Friday evening.

[old crow] 09/10/2005 14:28

king just a reminder, my past advice was
cash in around 200 or put a stop on
hope all goes well for you.

Keep Crowing

[kingdwg] 09/10/2005 11:04

Apax bid next week £2 per share, With a bit of luck it will pull some more interested parties out of the woodwork.

[kingdwg] 09/10/2005 10:49

Can't remember the advice!
If you mean, am I still hanging on like a rabbit in the headlamps, it's worse. Mrs K bought some last week.

[old crow] 09/10/2005 06:20

kingdwg
Hope you took action on the Crows advice.

Keep Crowing

[sharw] 08/10/2005 11:49

Similar story in the Times:

[kingdwg] 08/10/2005 09:46

Article in today's Telegraph suggesting that Apax would lose all credibility if they walked away from this one. They must bid at least 190 as they have bought at that price but no way would sof accept that inferring they would need to be well over 2.

[fft] 07/10/2005 14:18

with the retail slowdown, SOF isnt worth as much as it was 6 months ago. The p/e is nearly the same as Tesco's and i dont think anyone would clain that SOF has the same quality of earnings or the same growth path.

With only 1 bidder, that allows APAX to offer any price they like that will be more than the price will drop to if there is no bid. after all - who would like to own SOF shares if there is no offer ?


off topic.

IMHO Tescos have understated potential growth this year as the Far East and Eastern Europe will experience high profit growth as the initial setting up costs and organisation of suppliers rolls into action as volumes reach critical mass and beyond, thereby reducing costs etc etc. same pattern as in the UK, many years behind, but getting there.

[hamsterape] 07/10/2005 13:12

Exactly what I thought. If no-one else bids they could pick it up cheaper but they don't want to do that, yet if someone else does want it they will happily join in a bidding war with the prospect of paying a much higher price for it.

The logic slightly reminds me of Groucho Marx being offered membership of a club and declining on the grounds that he wouldn't want to join the kind of club that would have someone like him as a member.

[blunderbuss] 07/10/2005 12:06

Hamster - It seems that the RNS is also saying "we don't want SOF unless someone else does, in which case we reserve the right to bid, also if the SOF board initiate a dodge like a reverse takeover then, again, we reserve the right to bid. But otherwise we're not interested".

So there we are - clear as mud. They're not interested, but they are. Yea but no, but yea but no but yea ............

[hamsterape] 07/10/2005 12:01

I think the Baugur guy's appeal will not have been completed until after the 14th (or so close to it that it won't leave much time to launch a bid) and he wanted to have his name cleared before re-entering.

[kingdwg] 07/10/2005 10:50

I thought Bauger was cleared and the prosecutor was considering an appeal but with little realistic hope of success. Fingers crossed till the 14th now but it certainly hasn't dropped as much on this announcement because it had been widely flagged and as you say Hamster they've reserved the right to re-enter.

[hamsterape] 07/10/2005 10:40

I don't quite get what the above RNS is saying. L&R are announcing a pull-out with an option to re-enter the race. Does this mean that they can re-enter after Oct 14th as long as the other team place a bid by then?

If no-one bids by 14th Oct how long before anyone can re-enter the arena?

When is that Baugur bloke's appeal? Once that's out the way, assuming he wins it, is there anything to stop him coming back into the fray if no deal has been struck by 14th Oct? Does he have to wait several months?