Second bid for Lookers was 70p per share
CAR dealership Lookers yesterday revealed that the bid it rejected last week from a group of investors led by Jack Petchey was priced at 70p per share, below the expected 80p.
Petchey’s Trefick vehicle downgraded its offer after taking a gloomy view of Lookers’ pension fund and valuing its property portfolio at a lower level than expected. Lookers said the value of its assets had not been affected by these two factors.
Shares in the car dealer and parts supplier fell 6.5 per cent to 54.25p after the update.
Trefick, along with Moor Park Capital Partners, a real estate private equity investment advisory firm, and Brett Palos, a venture capitalist and real estate investor, took a joint cash approach to Lookers’ board back in May.
Lookers, which is in refinancing talks with its banks in the run-up to the expiry of its current facility next April, sells cars from marques such as Ford, Vauxhall, Nissan and Toyota. It said it expected first-half results to be similar to its record first-half trading performance last year.
The car market has remained subdued since the UK’s exit from recession but Lookers said it was winning market share.
Its new retail car sales reduced by 12.7 per cent, which it said was 5.4 per cent ahead of the industry as a whole. Its corporate sector sales fell “slightly”, it said, compared to a 3.1 per cent rise across the market.