Jones to be taken private

The Jones Group, which has been listed on the Irish stock market for almost 30 years, is the latest public company to be taken private following a recommended €16.1 million (£12.7 million) offer from Steepleview, a company controlled by former Jones executive Mr Alan Sherling and his father, Mr John Sherling.

Steepleview is offering €3.09 for each Jones share, a 16.6 per cent premium on the last dealt price of €2.65, and is expected to have acceptances from well over 50 per cent of Jones' shareholders by next Tuesday. Mr Alan Sherling previously worked for Jones's engineering division and has most recently worked for Zehnder, the Jones sharheolder which recently bought Jones's Runtalrad radiator subsidiary.

After an asset disposal programme lasting two years and a share buyback, Jones is effectively a cash company which is expected to have net cash of £14.7 million at the end of this year. However, Jones has contingent liabilities of £14 million relating to the various businesses sold off and these are not expected to expire for some years.

A spokesman for AIB Corporate Finance, which is handling the offer for Steepleside, said that while technically Jones might currently have more cash on its balance sheet than the offer from Steepleview, this ignores the contingent liabilities, the cost of running Jones as a public company and the fact that it is unlikely to be less than two years before Jones could be finally wound up and the remaining cash distributed to shareholders.

In effect, Mr Sherling is offering guaranteed cash now against the possibility of more cash at some unspecified date in the future. Given Jones's history, market sources believe that shareholders will rush to accept the cash on offer from Mr Sherling. The main shareholders include Zehnder, AIB, Friends First, Norwich Union and Natwest.

The AIB Corporate Finance spokesman said he had no idea what Mr Sherling's plans are for Steepleview.