Bonmarché warns £5.7m offer for the business undervalues it

Women’s fashion retailer Bonmarché’s board has told its shareholders that the £5.7m mandatory cash offer from billionaire Philip Day’s Spectre Holdings undervalues the business and its future prospects. On 2 April, Spectre Holdings, an entity wholly-owned by Day, who also owns Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group, tabled an offer for Bonmarché after acquiring more than 26m shares, which took its interest in the business to 52.4%. The cash offer values the shares at 11.445p per share. Bonmarché’s board has “strongly” advised its shareholders to take no action in relation to their shares and added that it had been planning to cut costs prior to Day’s offer. The board said it would look to discuss future plans for the business with Day and announce its plans for reducing its costs in due course. Bonmarché currently operates out of more than 300 stores across the UK.   To send feedback, e-mail louise.dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette