Jersey-based Team has started conversations with several shareholders of Tavistock Investments about a potential acquisition.
The firm said, in a London Stock Exchange statement on 30 March, that it has received “non-binding letters of intent” from six shareholders, representing 7.44% of the issued ordinary share capital of the wealth firm.
The intention expressed in the letters is:
- To vote in favour of all possible resolutions if the offer is implemented by way of a “court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement”; and,
- To accept the bid if it is implemented through a takeover offer.
The six shareholders are: Helium Rising Strs Fund (4.84%), Peter Horbye (1.09%), Paul Boston (0.57%), Mark Livingstone (0.51%), William George Vasilieff (0.27%), and Gonçalo Machado (0.16%).
Team’s chief financial and operating officer, Matthew Moore, said: “Team continues to engage with Tavistock shareholders and would encourage those who are supportive of Team being granted due diligence access by the Tavistock board, and who have not yet been contacted by Team, to contact Team or its financial advisers.”
International Adviser contacted Tavistock but the firm did not comment in time for publication.
Timeline
On 11 March 2021, Team submitted an acquisition bid to Tavistock which the firm said valued the business at £15.2m ($21m, €17m).
On 15 March, Tavistock notified the Jersey firm that it would not engage with it or provide access to due diligence materials.
A week later, Team said that Tavistock shareholders “deserve the opportunity to decide on the merits of any offer, and that if an approach is made in good faith, the Tavistock board should act in the interests of its shareholders by engaging with the potential offer and not deny its shareholders this opportunity”.
The wealth manager then hit back at the Jersey fund on 24 March by saying that Team’s approach was “unsolicited” and “non-binding” and that its proposal “significantly undervalued” the business.
It also accused the Jersey fund of omitting to mention that the original bid offered one Team share for every 45 Tavistock shares which, according to valuations at the time, equated to 2.00 pence per Tavistock share, which was deemed a “0% premium to the prevailing Tavistock share price”.
