Yorkshire utility firm rejects London company's "opportunistic" offer to buy shares

A Yorkshire utility contractor has rejected an offer from a London financial institution to buy 53 million of its shares.

Fulcrum, based in Sheffield, received an offer from Harwood Capital for 53.5 million shares at 26.25p each earlier this month.

If agreed, Harwood’s shares in Fulcrum would have totalled 29.9 per cent.

The company has rejected the offer, calling it “an opportunistic manoeuvre against the backdrop of stock market uncertainty and share price volatility resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic”.

It said: “The board believes that the tender price significantly undervalues the company and its prospects and does not reflect a fair value for independent shareholders.

“The board reiterates its recommendation that shareholders should take no action and neither accept the tender offer, when made, nor sell any shares to Harwood at or below the tender price.

“The board considers that this would manifestly not be in the best interests of independent shareholders given the loss of liquidity currently provided as a company admitted to trading on AIM.”