Science Group turns up heat in bid to takeover TP Group
Science Group has made a further share purchase in an engineering firm which has repeatedly rebuffed its acquisition attempts.
As of today, Science Group holds 140,528,829 shares in TP Group giving the company 18.03 per cent of voting share capital.
Science Group, a services and product development organisation, pushed for a General Meeting in a bid to replace TP’s Chairman and a nonexecutive director with members of its own board after two offers were rejected. In response, TP declared it had “no intention of engaging with Science Group.”
Today’s purchase will make Science Group all the more difficult to ignore. The spurned suitor heavily criticised TP Group’s board in its announcement of the shares purchase, claiming that it has “consistently failed” to create “value for shareholders.”
“The TP Group Board seeks to blame the poor performance of the Company on the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, while the performance of TP Group has been weak, Science Group has reported resilient performance over the past two years,” the statement continued.
In 2020 TP Group reported operating losses of £4.8m and statutory loss after tax of £10m despite boosting revenue by 20 per cent year-on-year to £59.0m.
Science Group also reiterated its offer to purchase TP at 6.5 pence per share, insisting the price was amply generous as it represented a premium of close to 67 per cent on the company’s share price when it made its initial investment.
Andrew McCree, the CEO of TP Group, issued a statement saying that “The Board of TP is acutely aware of its fiduciary responsibilities to all its stakeholders” and would “consider properly funded and constructed offers for the Company at an appropriate valuation.”
“The Board is not currently in receipt of any such offers,” McCree added.
Today, TP’s share price is down -2.48 per cent while Science Group shares have climbed 1.28 per cent.
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