Step on it, Ryland Group tells City

Robert Lea12 April 2012

THE SALES patter was coming thick and fast from motor dealer Ryland Group today, telling the City to revise its profit forecasts further as it attempts to solicit a tasty counter offer to the current 120p-a-share bid for the company.

Ryland, a specialist in upmarket motors such as Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar, declared a speculative £35 million takeover bid from 30% shareholder Guinness Peat hostile today, posting a defence document in which it tells the rest of its shareholders to hold tight for a better offer.

Rival Reg Vardy, the likely maker of that offer, is however refusing as yet to put its head above the parapet.

In the defence document Ryland tells analysts that profits for the year will come in ahead of their alreadyrevised £5.7 million figure.

Chairman Peter Whale indicated it could be significantly ahead, as he said he saw no slowdown from halfyear profits reported today of £3.3 million, up from £1.7 million last time.

Ryland shares were up 2 1/2p at 130 1/2p, reflecting hope for a bid of about 130p from Reg Vardy.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

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