Hunter invests £15m in BFG bid

Tom Hunter, the Scottish retail entrepreneur who is part of an Icelandic-led consortium that has bid £326m for Big Food Group, is paying £15m for his 13.4 per cent stake, documents released yesterday have shown.

Tom Hunter, the Scottish retail entrepreneur who is part of an Icelandic-led consortium that has bid £326m for Big Food Group, is paying £15m for his 13.4 per cent stake, documents released yesterday have shown.

Kevin Stanford, the co-founder of the Karen Millen fashion chain and a fellow consortium member, is paying £10m for his 8.9 per cent stake in Giant BidCo, Baugur's bidding vehicle. Similarly, Bank of Scotland, which is backing Baugur's bid through its Uberior investment vehicle, is receiving an 8.9 per cent stake for an outlay of £10m.

Sources said Mr Stanford and TBH Trading, Mr Hunter's investment vehicle, were late entrants to the consortium, which spent more than three months trying to secure financing. If the deal goes ahead, Mr Hunter, who has teamed up with Baugur several times in the past, will be a key investor in a separate property consortium that will complete a £213m sale-and-leaseback of BFG's properties.

The documentation for Giant BidCo's £326m recommended offer for BFG was posted to shareholders last night. It also revealed that UBS and Citigroup, BFG's financial advisers, will each receive a £2.75m fee if the deal goes ahead.

It confirmed that Bill Grimsey, the chief executive of BFG, is in line for a £2.7m windfall if - as widely expected - he leaves the company once the deal is completed.