Insurance tycoon Sir Peter Wood swoops on Dignity in £260m deal
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Insurance mogul Sir Peter Wood plunges into Dignity, deal worth more than £260 million
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Insurance magnate Sir Peter Wood is leading a bid to buy funeral home Dignity in a deal worth more than £260 million.
The 76-year-old, who is worth around £860 million after setting up Direct Line, Esure, Sheilas’ Wheels and Go Compare, has joined forces with former Dignity boss Gary Channon and has submitted a series of offers.
Dignity revealed yesterday that the pair approached three times last year – worth 475p, 500p and 510p per share – which it ‘unanimously rejected’.
Multiple bids: Sir Peter Wood, 76, (pictured) has joined forces with former Dignity boss Gary Channon and submitted a series of offers
But it said it “intends” to support a fourth offer worth 525 pence per share if a formal offer was made. That values Dignity at £262.7 million. Shares rose 25.7 percent, or 109.5 pence, to 535 pence.
Wood said: ‘Dignity has long-term growth potential – the signs are clear to me.
“But the changes and the significant development work and investment required to enable this growth mean that Dignity is the best way forward as a private company.”
Channon, who served as Dignity’s CEO and previously executive chairman until last year, added, “We strongly believe that the changes needed to unlock Dignity’s potential are better implemented as a private company.”
The pair have launched their bid to take control of Dignity through a consortium comprising Wood’s investment vehicle SPW One and Channon’s fund Castelnau.
The move, one of the first major takeover bids of the year in the London stock market, follows something of a dry spell for deals after skyrocketing inflation, higher interest rates and concerns about the global economy brought the takeover boom of recent years to a head . a terrifying halt.
However, Dignity said that while it was in “advanced discussions” with Wood and Channon “there can be no assurance that an offer will be made, nor on the terms of any offer.”
The deal has been in the works for months with Wood and Channon, who is chief investment officer at Phoenix Asset Management Partners, which manages the Castelnau fund, putting the first approach on the table in October.
The 525p per share offer now under discussion was made on 13 November.
But the bid price is well below the 940p Dignity shares still trading in July 2021.