Harworth ‘unequivocal’ in rejecting Peel £583m takeover
The Yorkshire-based developer and land owner told shareholders to take no action in the wake of Peel Holdings’ unexpected offer to take full ownership of the listed company, paying 172.5p per share.
Harworth’s board said that it had no engagement with Peel about the offer prior to the announcement Thursday.
Peel currently owns 30% of the shares in Harworth through its wholly-owned subsidiary Goodweather Holdings. The offer to buy the remaining shares was made through another Peel company, Peel Pepper.
In response to the offer, the Harworth board issued a statement.
“The board is unanimous and unequivocal in its rejection of the offer which, in its view, fundamentally undervalues Harworth and its near and longer-term prospects.
“The board also believes that the offer has been opportunistically timed to take advantage of a material dislocation between Harworth’s share price and the value of its underlying assets, driven predominantly by macroeconomic factors.”
Harworth said it delivered an average 8.1% total accounting return over the past five years for shareholders. In its most recent annual results, Harworth reported a revenue of £129.7m.
In a trading update on Monday, Harworth Group said it was in advanced negotiations to sell a second site with hyperscale data centre potential – the first, Skelton Grange, having been sold to Microsoft in 2024 for £106.6m.
This interest shows that there is untapped potential in Harworth’s 35m sq ft industrial and logistics portfolio and .8GW power-enabled land bank, the board argued.
To enable a reallocation of capital from housing projects to industrial, Harworth has created a medium-term business plan with cost reductions. This plan has been agreed, in principle, by the board.
“The board believes that together these actions will create a simpler, lower-cost and higher-returning platform to deliver sustainable future growth for shareholders,” the statement read.
Harworth Group, which is headquartered in Rotheram is due to announce its half-year results on 15 September. The company’s portfolio incorporates more than 15,000 acres of land in the North and Midlands. In addition to its potential to deliver 35m sq ft of industrial space, this land bank could deliver 29,000 homes.
Founded in 2004 as a division of UK Coal, Harworth became a standalone entity in 2014. It has been on the stock exchange
As of 3:40pm on Friday, Harworth’s share price had jumped 1.69% to 181p per share.
Harworth, headquartered in Rotherham, owns more than 15,000 acres of land across the North of England and the Midlands, with the potential to deliver more than 35m sq ft of employment space and enable around 29,000 homes.
