Forth Ports rejects third proposal
Forth’s Tilbury facility is the odd one out, as it is the only one outside Scotland.
The Forth Ports board in the UK has voted unanimously to reject the latest proposal of £14.00 per share from the Northstream consortium that includes competitor Peel Ports. Two previous bids were for £13.40 and £12.85 per share.
A spokesman for Forth Ports told MJ that since the results for the last financial year became available, Forth Ports has been in discussions with its shareholders and the board believes that the proposal falls far short of the company’s real value.
An independent analyst, Mark McVicker from Nomura puts the value at £14.50 per share, taking into consideration ‘the scale and valuation of the extensive property development assets and the potential from renewable energy’, while also looking at the company’s strategy of maximising value per acre across the extensive dock estates in Scotland and Tilbury from current and future income streams.
Northstream already holds a large share of the Forth Ports business between its members, with 23.5% held by Arcus Infrastructure Partners, a management buy out of part of B&B’s European infrastructure business, but Peel, which has a 3.5% stake thus far, has a presence on the west of the UK, facing the US market. The last partner is RREEF, the infrastructure arm of Deutsche Bank Asset Management, which holds a further 0.5% of Forth Ports.
Because six out of seven of Forth Port’s facilities are on the east coast of Scotland with access to Europe, a Forth Ports acquisition makes good strategic sense for Peel. The only overlap is Forth’s Tilbury and Peel’s Medway ports.
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