Northern Foods could face £300m hostile bid

James Thompson
Thursday 23 December 2010 01:00 GMT
Comments

A West Midlands entrepreneur is considering making a £300m hostile bid for Northern Foods which could scupper that group's plans to merge with Greencore.

Northern Foods, which makes Goodfella's pizza, yesterday confirmed it had received a letter from Ranjit Boparan's holding company on 17 December requesting access to data regarding a potential bid.

Mr Boparan owns 2 Sisters Food, a key chicken supplier to the retail giant Tesco, and this year bought the Harry Ramsden's fish and chip restaurant chain. Northern Foods said: "The letter contained no further details regarding Boparan's intentions and Boparan has not made an offer proposal to the board."

Last month, Northern Foods agreed to merge with Ireland's Greencore, a maker of convenience foods, in a near £500m all-share deal. The combined business is to be named Essenta Foods. Northern Foods continues to believe the merger with Greencore "offers substantial benefits for its shareholders".

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in