A consortium led by a subsidiary of food-to-furni-ture conglomerate Hillsdown Holdings Plc has agreed to rescue beleagured IBM Personal Computer dealer Fletcher Dennys Systems Plc. The consortium of Hillsdown Investment Trust Ltd, Gartmore Special Situations Trust, clients of Parrish Investment Management Ltd and three former senior managers of Micro Business Systems Plc, is to subscribe […]
A consortium led by a subsidiary of food-to-furni-ture conglomerate Hillsdown Holdings Plc has agreed to rescue beleagured IBM Personal Computer dealer Fletcher Dennys Systems Plc. The consortium of Hillsdown Investment Trust Ltd, Gartmore Special Situations Trust, clients of Parrish Investment Management Ltd and three former senior managers of Micro Business Systems Plc, is to subscribe for 20m new shares at 5p each, and existing shareholders are being offered the chance to buy two new shares at 5p each for every one they currently hold. The offer at 5p compares with Fletcher Dennys’ price of 76p before last Wednesday’s share suspension (CI No 755) and will leave the consortium with a minimum of 61.56% of the enlarged equity. It is expected to raise UKP1.28m before expenses for the Hatton Cross company which went public last June (CI Nos 464 and 475) but ran into trouble when budgeted orders from local authorities failed to materialise (CI No 678). Hillsdown is likely to use Fletcher Dennys as a vehicle for expanding its computer in-terests over the next few years but a spokesman for Hillsdown said he was not sure what effect this would have on the company’s holding in typewriter distributor Office & Electronic Machines Plc where Hillsdown is one of three with a 10% plus stake.
