A row between the families that own department store Arnotts has ended in a €40 million buy-out deal. Members of the O'Connor family, who owned 24.57 per cent of the company, have agreed to sell the stake to chairman and majority shareholder Richard Nesbitt for more than €40 million. Barry O'Halloranreports.
Both sides confirmed the deal in a joint statement issued yesterday. The sale ends the O'Connor family's 70-year involvement with Arnotts.
The move settled a dispute which became public last May when it emerged that the O'Connor brothers, led by director Conor O'Connor and former chairman Michael O'Connor, were preparing to offer €200 million cash for 100 per cent of Arnotts Holdings. As the bid meant they would take on the company's €300 million-plus debt, it valued the business at €500 million.
Mr Nesbitt, its chairman and majority shareholder, dismissed the offer as flawed and responded by publicly offering to personally buy out the O'Connors for €25 million.
His offer valued the O'Connor stake, and Arnotts, at half the cash sum they were prepared to pay for the company as a whole, so they rejected this, and a stand-off resulted.
Their bid resulted from a split between them and Mr Nesbitt over his €750 million plans to redevelop the company's properties on the north side of Dublin's city centre into a retail, leisure and residential area called "the northern quarter".
At the time the row became public, insiders said that the O'Connors favoured focusing on running its department stores, while he wanted to press on with the property development plans.
Sources say that the two sides began talking about three or four weeks ago. They agreed the terms of the buyout deal in the early hours of yesterday morning.
In the statement issued yesterday, Michael O'Connor said the family was happy with its decision to sell out of the company. He added that the deal had been done in a "cordial and friendly manner". Mr Nesbitt said that the O'Connors had made a substantial contribution to making Arnotts a leading retailer.
The deal gives Mr Nesbitt firm control of the company, whose other remaining shareholders are members of his family.
He holds 60 per cent of Art Investment Ltd, a Nesbitt family-owned vehicle which in turn controls 60.45 per cent of Arnotts.
As a result of yesterday's deal, his direct personal holdings now come to 29.61 per cent of the company.