The time has nearly run out for Ranjit Boparan to put up or shut up and clarify whether he intends to table a bid for Northern Foods.
The takeover tussle for Northern has become particularly tasty in recent weeks - what with investment bank NM Rothschild switching sides to advise Boparan on his potential counter-bid, fuelling speculation - denied by the firm - that commercially sensitive documents had changed hands.
Northern stressed to shareholders last week in its trading update there was only one deal on the table – its planned tie-up with Greencore to create Essenta Foods – which would command over 45% of the UK sandwich market and deliver £40m in cost synergy savings.
But Boparan, who is known for his 2 Sisters Food Group empire and acquisition of fish and chip group Harry Ramsden’s, won’t go quietly and has been busy courting Northern Food’s pension trustees this week.
They present the biggest hurdle of all and will have no doubt been chewing the fat on how he intends to finance the deal and plug Northern’s £142m pension deficit, the albatross around the company's neck.
If he succeeds in doing so, he’ll then need to win over the support of shareholders, of which he is one, with a sufficiently attractive cash bid.
Investors have already been pressing Northern not to accept anything less than 75p per share and there is a divergence in opinion across the industry on what is achievable.
If Boparan steps aside, Northern/Greencore hope to complete a merger in the second quarter of this year. However the decision to halt integration plans until he outlines his position on Friday suggest they’re not counting their chickens just yet.
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