Limelight delists with £57m MBO

Limelight Group, the home improvements company that includes Moben kitchens and Dolphin bathrooms, ended its troubled four-year spell on the stock market yesterday with a management buyout valuing the company at £57m.

Limelight Group, the home improvements company that includes Moben kitchens and Dolphin bathrooms, ended its troubled four-year spell on the stock market yesterday with a management buyout valuing the company at £57m.

The deal is worth 57p per share, an 83.9 per cent premium to the closing price in February when the company said it had received an approach. However, the price is a fraction of the 175p at which Limelight came to the market in 1996.

The management team is led by Andrew Stanway, the group's chief executive, together with Ashley Lewis, finance director and Andrew Thomas, a non-executive director. It is being backed by Phildrew Funds.

Limelight has 400 stores across the UK and, in addition to Moben and Dolphin, operates the Portland conservatories and Sharps bedrooms brands.

The group recorded a fall in pre-tax profits from £4.7m to £3.4m last year on sales up 5 per cent at £91m. Its shares closed up 5p at 55.5p.