Restore shares soar after shooting down Marlowe’s ‘unsolicited’ £743m bid
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Data management services firm Restore had its shares sent flying today after it rejected a £743m ‘unsolicited’ bid from business services and software company Marlowe.
Restore rejected the offer almost immediately, adding that it is the second “unsolicited, highly conditional, non-binding” offer in just a few weeks.
Shares in the data management firm rocketed 14.2 per cent in its afternoon trading, lifting its price to 480p per share.
However, the rejection sent Marlowe’s shares down 5.4 per cent to 817p per share – after sitting at around 860p this morning.
Marlowe said that within the 530p per share proposal, 71p would be paid in cash for each Restore share and the remainder would be given as new Marlowe shares.
“Marlowe and Restore share the same corporate DNA and channels to market, and we believe that bringing our businesses together will create a leading business-critical services group,” Marlow boss Alex Dacre said.
The deal would see Marlowe’s chairman, chief executive and group finance director retain their positions within the combined business.
The previous offer, on 21 June, came in at 515p per Restore share, of which 71p would be in cash and the remainder in new Marlowe shares.
Restore’s board unanimously rejected both offers, it said in a statement this morning, adding that it “does not believe that the combination of Marlowe and Restore is strategically compelling.”
It comes amid an acquisition spree at Marlowe, which dished out around £18m for risk management platform Core Stream just last week and a £17.2m bid for healthcare firm Healthwork in mid-June.
The services firm has already bagged 10 deals so far this year, including fire safety and security service provider ACL for £7.3m.