Seafield MD quits as talks abandoned

Seafield's shareholders, who hoped that the takeover approach disclosed last March might lead to a bid for the company, will be disappointed to hear that not only have those takeover discussions been abandoned but that the group's managing director, Mr Lyle Noble, has suddenly left the company.

Seafield chairman, Mr Jonathan Glanz, would not comment on the circumstances of Mr Noble's departure, apart from repeating the statement to the stock exchange that: "Mr Noble is no longer a member of the board." The terse nature of the statement and the failure to explain the circumstances of his departure have led to speculation, however, of a major boardroom row. Mr Noble could no be contacted.

On the aborted takeover discussions, Mr Glanz said that Seafield had more than one interested party for its business.

"We never got to the stage of a price that we could recommend to shareholders," he said.

Seafield, shares have traded between 15 and 30 cents for the past few years - the most recent price is 21 cents, valuing the company at €14 million.

In March, the group told shareholders it had appointed Albert E. Sharp Securities and Goodbody Stockbrokers to define a corporate strategy for Seafield. Sharp was asked to explore all the options open to the group to maximise shareholder return.

Previously Seafield was periodically linked with takeover bids from a company attracted by its share quotation.

The most prominent potential bidder over the past year is the privately-owned Irish transport group Imari, which snapped up a 5.4 per cent stake in Seafield 15 months ago.

But any plans by Imari to bid for Seafield were frustrated by the refusal of the biggest Seafield shareholder, Fidex Investments with 29.9 per cent, to comtemplate a bid at anything near the price in the market.

The approach disclosed last March was, however, from a British company which was not interested in Seafield's stock market listing. If this bid had gone ahead, it would have made Seafield a cash shell, allowing money to be distributed to shareholders and the company wound up.