Frasers on track to own more than half of MySale, but still short of 75%+ target

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 3, 2022

Frasers Group is doubling down on its efforts to get holders of MySale shares to accept its buyout offer as it also announces that it’s on the verge of owning more than half of the firm’s shares, even though it’s still well below its target.

The company has said that if it acquires substantially more shares, it could de-list the company from the stock exchange even if its buyout offer isn’t fully accepted. This could present a problem for holders who aren’t willing to sell.

Frasers is offering 2p for each share, which is well down on the £1+ they were trading at less than a year ago and even further down on the £18 each price back in 2017.

The company issued an update on Monday saying that as of the end of play on Friday, holders of less than 1% of MySale representative shares had voted in favour of the mandatory offer it made for the close-out retailer last week. 

It urged holders to accept as soon as possible before the deadline of 1 November, and added that it knows of no other parties interested in acquiring the company.

It also said that with the Jackson family agreeing to sell their holdings, and with it agreeing to buy a further 1,000,000 shares from “others in the market”, once settled, it would own 50.01% of the business’s issued share capital.

That would be enough to make its offer unconditional but is still well short of giving it the freedom to de-list the firm. That relies on it acquiring more of the shares. 

If it manages to buy 90%, it can compulsorily acquire the rest under Jersey Law. 

But if it only reaches a 75% holding by the deadline, it said it would “consider making an application for the cancellation of the admission of MySale Shares to trading on AIM”.

That would reduce the liquidity and marketability of any MySale Shares and Frasers said it would mean their value “may be adversely affected as a consequence”.