The Property Franchise Group rejects Belvoir merger offer

The Property Franchise Group confirmed on Thursday that it has received a merger offer from Belvoir Lettings that it has rejected on the basis that it would not be in the best interests of its shareholders.

The company did not specify why it would not be in the best interests of its shareholders but said a further announcement will be made in due course outlining the reasons.

Belvoir Lettings said it was disappointed that TPFG has declined to enter into a dialogue about the offer, “not least because they had previously indicated a willingness to engage with Belvoir in this regard and also given the strategic rationale for the possible merger offer".

"The Belvoir board strongly believe that now is exactly the time for such industry consolidation and that a more broadly based multi franchise group will be better positioned to leverage the opportunities in the sector and that the shareholders of the respective companies are looking for such leadership. The Belvoir board believes that the franchise-facing operations of Belvoir and TPFG will remain largely unchanged.”

As a result, Belvoir said it has decided to publicise the terms of its proposed merger offer to “facilitate direct discussions with the shareholders” of TPFG and Belvoir.

Existing TPFG shareholders could get up to 0.7150 Belvoir shares and 52.20p in cash in exchange for each TPFG ordinary share and TPFG shareholders would control around 35% of the merged group.