Bonmarché managers sell stakes to Philip Day
Bonmarché CEO Helen Connolly, CFO Stephen Alldridge and non-executive director Ishbel Macpherson have sold their shares in the company to Spectre Holdings – an entity owned by Philip Day – despite telling shareholders to not accept his takeover bid in May.
Yesterday (Monday 1 July), Connolly sold 42,542 shares to Day for just over £4,868, Alldridge sold 508,910 shares for nearly £58,245 while Macpherson made just over £2,861 for her 25,000 shares.
This comes after shareholder Cavendish Asset Management sold its 10.8% stake in Bonmarché as it said it wanted to avoid having shares in a delisted company.
Day closed his offer for the company with a deadline of 12 July, as he said the future of the retailer looked “uncertain”. Up until the deadline, Spectre Holdings is obliged to acquire any shares which come available.
In April, Spectre acquired 52.4% of Bonmarché’s shares, triggering a mandatory takeover bid. If Day gains more than three quarters of the shares, he can take the company off the stock market.
Bonmarché’s management originally said Day’s £5.7m bid “materially undervalues” the women’s fashion retailer, recommending a rejection of the offer. However, they turned on that decision in June when they advised shareholders to accept the takeover bid after it saw “poor” trading in the first quarter of its financial year.
