After PLUS Markets Group plc announced that it is selling its PLUS Stock Exchange business to ICAP for £1 and ICAP’s assumption of the liabilities of that business, dissident shareholders opposed the proposed deal – as we reported here.
The objections of these dissidents appear to be various, but focus on the £1 consideration, the payments to be made to exiting management, the supposed financing offers made by Amara Dhari (a major shareholder in PLUS) and a unknown group called Markab Capital, and the attitude of Amara Dhari to the ICAP deal. The gist of the dissident’s opposition is that the ICAP deal should not go ahead and that there is more shareholder value to be extracted from PLUS than allowed for by the sale to ICAP.
Today the PLUS board has issued a detailed and very punchy statement, pouring cold water over the dissidents’ objections to the ICAP transaction. The board’s announcement points out that:
