Belvoir Lettings abandons merger offer for The Property Franchise Group

AIM-listed Belvoir Lettings has abandoned its proposed merger offer for The Property Franchise Group, saying it was “disappointed” that the company declined to enter into a dialogue.

On 19 October, TPFG knocked back Belvoir's offer on the basis that it would not be in the best interests of its shareholders. Under the terms of the offer, existing TPFG shareholders would have got up to 0.7150 Belvoir shares and 52.20p in cash in exchange for each TPFG ordinary share and TPFG shareholders would control around 35% of the merged group.

Belvoir said on Thursday that it was disappointed the TPFG board has declined to enter into a dialogue, not least because it has recognised “the scale that would be achieved in combining the two businesses”. It also pointed to the fact that a number of common institutional shareholders have publicly stated their support, in principle, for a dialogue between the boards of both companies with regard to the possible merger offer.

As there has been no engagement from the directors of the TPFG, Belvoir is effectively unable to take its possible merger offer any further ahead of the 1700 GMT deadline on Thursday.