Piccolino firm split on £5.7m takeover bid

The board of the Individual Restaurant Company was split today when the chief executive of the firm behind the Piccolino and Restaurant Bar & Grill brands accepted a £5.7 million takeover bid but the rest of the board did not.

W2D2 Limited, a consortium led by Iceland supermarket founder Malcolm Walker and including IRC chief executive Steven Walker, today made a cash offer of 9.5p per share for the 46% of the Individual Restaurant Company they do not already control.

That includes the 14.7% stake owned by Walker.
But the rest of the board refused to recommend the bid because it is only one penny above the share price. A spokesman for IRC's board somewhat confusingly explained: "They're not not recommending it but they're not recommending it. They're telling shareholders to make up their own mind."

She added that the IRC had insisted on a rollover option being added to the offer, which gives existing IRC shareholders who want to remain investors the opportunity to do so.

This month IRC posted a higher annual loss as sales at its 33 outlets fell £2 million to £51.3 million in 2010.