Court approves Dobbies open offer
Dobbies Garden Centres has got the green light to launch an open offer today after a Scottish court refused an application by West Coast Capital to block the cash call.
West Coast Capital - the investment vehicle of Scotland's richest man Tom Hunter - applied for an order blocking the open offer, which is underwritten by supermarket giant Tesco, earlier this month. The two groups have been locked in a battle for control of Dobbies since last year when Tesco made a takeover offer.
West Coast owns 29% of Dobbies and resisted the takeover bid, though the supermarket group ended up owning 65.5% of the shares. As well as its interest in Dobbies, WCC owns 110 garden centres including the Wyevale and Blooms of Bressingham chains.
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Midlothian-based Dobbies said today that the Court of Session had refused the application and that it would proceed with the open offer by asking shareholders to approve it at the company's annual meeting on May 21.
A spokesman for at West Coast Capital said "We respect this judgement. It is our intention to speak to Tesco's in order to seek a fair solution for all 300 shareholders, many of whom have written to us unsolicited in support of our actions. Should a fair resolution not be forthcoming we reserve our right to continue down the legal process."
Tesco also responded to today's ruling. It said: "We're delighted that the court has found in Dobbies' and Tesco's favour."
