Uniq shareholders face Greencore offer deadline
In a stock exchange announcement, Greencore underscored the fact that the Uniq board unanimously recommended the offer to shareholders, who have until August 16 to accept or reject it.
The Irish food manufacturer has also gained irrevocable undertakings from Angel Street (Uniq’s principal shareholder with a 90.2% holding) and Uniq’s directors to accept the offer.
City analysts welcomed news of the acquisition on July 12, which brings Greencore the prestigious Marks & Spencer account via Uniq’s Food to Go division.
Greencore has a plan
But questions remain over desserts. Julian Wild, corporate finance partner from law firm Rollits, told this publication earlier in July.
“I hope Greencore has a plan for [Uniq’s Shropshire dairy based in] Minsterley. It has not made money in a long time.
“One of the dairies might be interested in acquiring it as a stand-alone business so there might be a back-to-back deal to be done there. Greencore needed a deal having missed out on Northern Foods."
RBS analyst Robbie Aitken told FoodManufacture.co.uk this morning that the deal was a “good strategic fit in the right categories” of sandwiches and salads.
Asked about plans for Minsterley, he said that Evercreech was a “well-invested, high quality site” that Greencore would most likely want to retain.
Contract exits?
But Aitken said he believed that production at Minsterley would be reduced to around a third of capacity, with Greencore perhaps keen to exit some third-party contracts relating to the site, as well some covering loss-making own-label or ‘everyday’ desserts.
“£40-50m in sales will probably come out [of Uniq], with most related to Minsterley,” he said.
Salads and sandwiches currently being made at Minsterley could also be transferred to Evercreech, Aitken said, while Greencore could switch some of its own desserts production to Minsterley.
Given that Greencore had gained an irrevocable undertaking from Uniq shareholders to sell at the offer price, Aitken added that a deal was definitely going to happen.
There may have initially been concerns about how Greencore would fund the deal, he added, but the Irish firm had proven that it had no problems in this respect.
Dr Clive Black, head of research at Shore Capital, agreed with Aitken's suggestions, recommending "all of the above and others".
"Doing nothing is not an option," he said. "Minsterley has been the millstone of dairy desserts for years. Greencore has to find a cost-effective means to make it work. Otherwise it's plan B."
