O'Dwyer brothers, who run some of Dublin's best-known bars, will make a management buyout of their loss-making pub company Capital Bars Plc and de-list from the London Stock Exchange.
The announcement came as a bidding war continued over an estimated five per cent of Capital Bars Plc stock that an Irish shipping company owner, Austin Conboy, has been trying to purchase to amass a minimum 10 per cent stake needed to block a compulsory buyout of his shares.
Capital Bars is a small company, with market capitalisation of IR£8.9 million but its strong representation in the booming Dublin market, and at the same time loss-making results for fiscal 2001, have made it the subject of considerable attention in the Irish media.
The company owns some of Dublin's most fashionable bars, including the Middle Eastern/African-themed Zanzibar and the stylish, recently reopened Cafe en Seine just off Dublin's central St. Stephen's Green.
A statement by the O'Dwyers' Full Circle Investments Plc said acceptances from the holders of 26.3 million shares, or 78 per cent of the existing issued share capital, had been received by Monday afternoon.
The offer has been declared unconditional so what that effectively means is the O'Dwyers are going to go ahead through their investment vehicle, Adrian Shanagher, a spokesman for the O'Dwyers, said.
The O'Dwyers are offering 21 pence (33.87 euro cents) per share.
But Conboy, who has been buying blocks of shares at 26 pence, told Reuters he had not given up his attempt to acquire what he hopes eventually to grow to a 25 percent stake in Capital Bars, despite the plans of Liam (William) and Desmond O'Dwyer to take the company private.
Capital Bars, which had fallen as low as nine pence in the past year, was trading at 28 pence in London at 1616 GMT.