EVER controversial Tony Clegg yesterday severed his links with the
Mountleigh property group when he disclosed he had sold his 14.6% stake
at 200p a share. The market had been thrown into confusion when
Mountleigh intimated first thing in the morning that it was to make an
announcement later in the day that would not involve a general offer for
its shares.
Initial market reaction was to push the shares ahead from the
overnight 138p, up 9p, to a spread of 150p-160p. Much later, Mountleigh
said that Mr Clegg had sold his shares which, together with the disposal
of his options to acquire an additional 7.9% or 16.7 million shares at
180p a share, he would receive a total of #70.4m from American property
tycoons Nelson Peltz and John May who end up controlling 22.5%.
Mountleigh shares then jumped 35p to 174p despite the two purchasers
saying they have no intention of making a bid in current circumstances
subject to various caveats such as a third party acquiring a holding of
10% or more. They ended 26p higher at 164p.
There seems no good reason as to why the shares were not suspended at
the company's request until the second announcement was made. The Stock
Exchange said that temporary suspensions are made after discussion with
the company. So given the vagueness of the Mountleigh statement which
could only leave the market prey to rumour, it should have used its
powers much more effectively.
Mr Clegg said that he is standing down as chairman and chief executive
because although he has made a good recovery from the serious illness of
12 months ago he nonetheless feels acutely aware of the tremendous
demands placed upon the chief executive.
He is being succeeded by Mr Peltz who is probably best known for
building up and then selling the Triangle Industries packaging group.
Gerry Tsai, who heads up Primerica Corporation and was the most
redoubtable of the Wall Street ''gun slingers'' in the 1960s, also joins
the board while Sir Ian MacGregor remains the incumbent deputy chairman.
Mountleigh has had a rough ride in the last couple of years as a
result of its hefty #153m investment in the Galerias Preciados
department store group in Spain. But early doubts appear to have been
dispelled with Galerias turning from losses into operating profits of
#20m. There had been a general expectation that Mr Clegg would try to
float off Gallerias next year at anything up to #400m although that may
well be in abeyance while the new board reconsider their options.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article