A private equity consortium led by Duke Street Capital has agreed to acquire CI Traders, the Channel Islands-based pub, bar, restaurant and hotel operator, for £260m.
The consortium, known as Sandpiper, has offered 100p a share in cash for the group, which is a 23% premium to the price when the offer period began last October.
CI Traders, which operates around 80 pubs and restaurants plus three hotels, said it had recommended the proposal to its shareholders.
Tony O’Neill, the former director of Somerfield, will head up the new group as part of a management buy-in once the deal becomes effective in early August.
He said: “CI Traders has a unique place in Channel Island life. The combination of Duke Street and Europa Capital will provide the new management team with the investment and security necessary to enhance current operations and offer the business greater opportunities in the future to reach its full potential more quickly.”
Martin Bralsford, chief executive of CI Traders, said: “The board’s intentions for the company as set out in 2002 and, subsequently on its acquisition of ComProp Ltd in 2004, have been successfully carried out and the programme of investment and divestment identified is now largely fulfilled.
“The next few years of development of the group’s businesses will require substantial fresh investment and corresponding funding requirements that may be more effectively carried out in a private company and the corresponding need for higher retention of earnings.”
CI Traders announced last month that it had entered exclusive talks regarding a possible sale of its business.
It announced last October that it had received a preliminary approach, after previously rejecting an approach from Alchemy Partners in October 2005.
Earlier this year the group reported that turnover across its hospitality division was £29.4m for the year to 27 January 2007, down £6.2m on the previous year.
It said that pre-tax profit in the division was slightly down from last year at £2.6m, compared to £2.7m the previous year.
Turnover across the company’s entire business portfolio, which includes the Le Riche retail grocery business, was up 4.6% to £332.9m during the period.
