A group of Irish-based minority shareholders headed by the former head of Goodbody Stockbrokers, Mr Ray French, has threatened to block a move by the Weston family to take specialist food retailer Fortnum & Mason private in a £57 million sterling (€92 million) deal.
Opponents to the bid also include Mr Ray Tilson, head of Tilman Asset Management in Dublin. Mr Tilson is also a former director of Goodbody.
The Weston family currently holds 90 per cent of the shares in Fortnum but the dissidents claim it needs 75 per cent of the remaining equity to be able to take the company private.
They control 18 per cent of the minority stake and believe they could muster the required number of minority shareholders to block the move.
Mr French said: "I have spoken to a few other individual shareholders who also feel the offer is too low."
The Weston family, through Wittington, its family company, is offering 600p a share. The company said this was a 70 per cent premium over the price at the close of business on Monday last week when the offer was made public.
Mr Tilson, who acts for wealthy private clients and a number of large charities in Ireland, said the price "does not adequately reflect the goodwill in the Fortnum name".
He said the asset value of the company was currently about 521p. Moreover, he said, the latest accounts, to July 14th, 2001, showed there was an unquantified pension surplus, which was not reflected in the price. The accounts say that as at April 5th, 1999, the last time the pension fund was audited, assets stood at 136 per cent of the benefits paid out.
Fortnum & Mason is one of a handful of London retail brands - others include Harrods and Hamleys - that have genuine world fame, but Fortnum has consistently struggled to convert that fame into profits.
Analysts say that Fortnum is over-reliant on US and Japanese visitors, and is prevented from expansion by virtue of its cramped site in Piccadilly.
The Weston family, headed by Mr Garfield Weston, has owned Fortnum & Mason since 1952, when it bought control from the Maharajah of Baroda.
Mr Weston has a major share in Associated British Foods, which owns the Penneys retail chain in the Republic and Britain and also owned the Quinnsworth supermarket chain, which was sold to Tesco five years ago for £630 million .
Brokers in Dublin are concerned the Weston family is exploiting the downturn in share values to try to acquire outright control of the company.
The family has made it clear it will not consider an outside bid for the company, which Mr French conceded limited the leverage of the minority shareholders .
"We can block this scheme but we have no power to put forward an alternative proposal. Any positive move will have to come from them," he said.
