Cheshire based contractor Pochin’s is heading back into family hands after a bid from the founder’s grandson to buy it off the stock exchange was accepted this week.
Jim Nicholson, the grandson of Cedric Pochin, has been in talks to take over the company, which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange for 50 years, since December. But a raised cash offer of 45p per share, which values the company at £9.4m, has clinched the deal.
Nicholson is currently the firm’s property development director and represents the interests of the Cedric Pochin Concert Party group of shareholders, which includes Nicholson’s mother and non-executive director Sylvia, daughter of Cedric Pochin. This group owns 42% of the company. They have formed a newly incorporated company, Middlewich, to make the offer.
As part of the deal, Pochin’s Midpoint property portfolio will be sold to the retirement fund of Pochin’s non-executive director and shareholder Michael Chadwick for £11.5m.
Acceptance of the offer now must be agreed at a shareholder extraordinary general meeting.
The firm was hit hard during the downturn and was forced to sell its loss-making concrete pumping business for £1 just over a year ago after struggling to find a buyer.
It has recorded losses in four of the last year years as turnover dropped from £102m in 2009 to a trough of £60m two years ago. The last set of results to May 2013 showed turnover returning to £78m but making a loss of £7m.
Nicholson said: “The completion of the offer and the sale of the Midpoint portfolio will put Pochin’s on a more secure financial footing, better positioned to take advantage of improving market conditions. In what has proven to be a very difficult trading period in recent years, I’ve been very pleased with the loyalty, passion and commitment shown by all the team at Pochin’s and would like to take this opportunity to thank each of them for their efforts. As a family, we look forward to the next stage of development of the business my grandfather founded 80 years ago.”
Cedric Pochin founded the business in 1935 as a joiner in Manchester. He was later joined by his brother Arthur. Pochin’s went public on the Manchester Stock Exchange in 1965. The company today is based in Middlewich, Cheshire, and listed on the London Stock Exchange, which it moved to in 1973.
