DIRECTORS of Lees Foods have cleared the final hurdle in the way of completing a controversial £5.6 million management buyout of the macaroon-maker.
Led by chief executive Clive Miquel, the directors won sanction from the Court of Session in Edinburgh for a scheme to take the company private.
The clearance leaves the team free to proceed with a 230p per share bid for the company which was announced in April.
The Coatbridge-based company said the listing of its shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange will be cancelled at 7am on June 28 2012.
The buyers expect to send the required payments to shareholders on or prior to July 10.
The loss of another member of the country's small band of listed companies will be regarded with concern by some people in Scotland.
The prospect of the bid succeeding may spark anger in some quarters following accusations that the MBO bid undervalued Lees.
Dave Stredder, a director of the Sharesoc investor group, has said the fact that all Lees directors belonged to the MBO team raised corporate governance issues. However, Mr Miquel told The Herald: "We are pleased that this long and complex process has now reached a conclusion and look forward to fully concentrating on the business going forward."
The MBO team won clearance for their proposed scheme of arrangement after a long day of complex legal argument in Edinburgh which nearly ended in disaster.
Lord Hodge only cleared the scheme after he adjourned the hearing for 20 minutes from 4.15pm while he considered whether he needed to delay approval pending clarification of some issues.
Counsel for the MBO team, Mr Sellar, told Lord Hodge the scheme would lapse if court sanction was not received by tomorrow at the latest.
Earlier, Mr Sellar noted the bank funding provided for the scheme would have to be drawn down by July 13.
The court was told of an extraordinary sequence events surrounding the shareholder vote to approve the proposed MBO. The vote was restricted to independent shareholders, excluding members of the MBO team and associates.
The court heard that the company which manages the biggest independent shareholding, Unicorn, initially voted in favour of the MBO bid.
However, the court heard, Unicorn then submitted a second proxy vote opposing the takeover.
If 5.7% holding managed by unicorn had voted against the MBO bid, the scheme of arrangement may not have obtained support from the required 75% of independent shareholders.
The second proxy was received after the relevant deadline. After taking legal advice, Mr Miquel deemed the second proxy vote to be inadmissible.
The court heard that Unicorn subsequently changed its position again to be in favour of the scheme proceeding.
"Unicorn does not come out of this with flying colours for clarity," said Lord Hodge.
However, Lord Hodge was concerned to hear that Unicorn had had a meeting with advisors to the company, at which it was told the MBO team's business plan assumed they would maintain ownership of Lees for the long term.
Lord Hodge was concerned this information was not made available to other investors.
Following contact with the Takeover Panel, the MBO team's vehicle, Randotte, issued a statement early yesterday morning in which it said: "The Randotte directors would like to confirm that the current strategy does not include a disposal of the Lees business and undertake that the Lees business will not be sold to a third party in the 24 months following the scheme becoming effective.
"The Randotte directors would also like to confirm that no formal third party approaches or offers have been made for Lees since it admitted to trading on AIM in 2005."
Mr Miquel said: "At every stage of the process we sought and carefully followed legal and financial advice.
"We are grateful for the support of the union and our employees. We also thank our shareholders for their support and patience."
Mr Sellar told the court: "There's no evidence to suggest that (230p per share) is not a reasonable price."
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