Delancey in £194m deal to take over Minerva

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated:

 

Shares in property group Minerva soared yesterday after it accepted a £194m takeover bid - the third offer for the company in the last three years.

Minerva, which owns office blocks in the City of London and upmarket apartments around Hyde Park, struck a deal with a consortium led by Delancey, the property investor run by Jamie Ritblat.

The 120.5p a share bid was 21.4% higher than Wednesday's closing price of 99.25p and shares rose 14% to 113.25p.

Minerva saw off a 160p a share offer from Dubai-based Limitless in 2008 and last year defeated a 50p bid from South African businessman Nathan Kirsch, who owns 30% of the company.

There are signs the London property market is picking up. London & Stamford (up 0.1p to 131p) said income jumped 160% to £41.8m last year and raised the dividend 43% to 6.3p a share.

However, profits fell from £106.1m to £43.3m.

Helical Bar (up 1.9p to 259.6p) said rents rose 19% last year to £17.8m, although it slumped to an annual loss of £6.3m.

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Most watched Money videos

{"status":"error","code":"499","payload":"Asset id not found: readcomments comments with assetId=1724654, assetTypeId=1"}