Quinn's golf club hopes dashed

Quinn Group has pulled out of the bidding for Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey following a counter bid by British retail entrepreneur Mr Richard Caring.

The new bid is just £1,000 (€1,428) over the threshold of £130 million which was required to allow Wentworth's largest shareholder to renege on its undertaking to sell to Quinn for £122 million.

Chelsfield, a British property company that is itself in the process of being taken over, accepted a £98.7 million cash bid from Quinn Group that valued the fixed assets of Wentworth at £122 million. Under the terms of the Quinn offer, Chelsfield could only accept a rival offer if it exceeded £130 million.

Referring to the Caring bid, a Quinn spokesman last night said: "We will not be matching that."

The Cavan-based group's takeover plan effectively stalled last week when a meeting to put its bid to the minority shareholders in Wentworth was postponed after it emerged that Mr Caring had bought out a number of the so-called "A" shareholders.

Although Chelsfield - the "B" shareholder - has a 60 per cent stake, the 26 "A" shareholders have the right to pre-empt any takeover bid.

Mr Caring, who was acting with hotelier Mr Surinder Arora, had been expected to try and use his "A" shares to pre-empt Quinn at £122 million, but instead chose to make a fresh bid at the lockout price of £130 million.

Sources speculated last night that other "A" shareholders objected to his plans to pre-empt Quinn. If more than one "A" shareholder had wanted to pre-empt the takeover bid, then a lottery would have taken place.

Under the terms of the Quinn offer, the exiting "A" shareholders were offered playing rights for 10 years at the 75-year-old championship course in Surrey. It is understood that these are not included in the offer from Mr Caring, which is unconditional.

His bid represents a premium of almost 50 per cent over the £87.5 million originally offered by Quinn last month. The two sides bid each other up over the following weeks, with Mr Caring seen to be favoured by some elements within Chelsfield, notably the chairman Mr Elliot Bernard. But Mr Bernard's influence waned as Chelsfield was targeted by two Australian Groups, Westfield and Multiplex.

Quinn was thought to have secured the deal three weeks ago when he topped a £110 million offer from Caring with a £122 million bid and £130 million lockout.