'Undervalued' Ambishus Pub and Dencora join exodus from market

Two more public companies are set to go private because they feel unfairly valued by the stock market.

Two more public companies are set to go private because they feel unfairly valued by the stock market.

The Ambishus Pub Company, which listed in May 1998, is being targeted by a management buyout team led by Philip Snook, its non-executive chairman. And Dencora, the commercial property firm, agreed to a £74.6m takeover backed by Cargill, the US commodities giant.

Mr Snook has set up a bid vehicle for Ambishus together with Mike Mills, another non-executive director, and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, the US investment bank. Yesterday the group, called Jodsal, said it was negotiating to acquire Ambishus and had already agreed to buy Mill House Inns, a privately held pub chain, for a total of £57.6m including debt refinancing.

Mr Snook said: "In my last three chairman's statements, I have consistently said how frustrating it is for both management and shareholders that, despite beating market expectations every year since listing, [Ambishus's] share price has consistently lagged."

Nigel Popham, an analyst at Teather & Greenwood, said that in current market conditions, Ambishus shares were worth "150p to 160p top whack". Yesterday they closed down 1p at 139p, valuing the group at £11.7m. Mr Snook and Mr Mills together own 11 per cent of the company.

Dencora shares gained 18p to 300.5p after the group agreed to a buyout at 307p a share. Although the price represents a discount to net asset value of 348p, it is a 65 per cent premium to Dencora's close of 185.5p on 27 March, the day before it said it was in talks on a possible offer.

Dencora's board said it hadrecognised for some time that its share price had not fairly reflected the underlying value of the group. The Dencora takeover follows a spate of buyouts and liquidations in the property sector.