Company drops support for Allianz offer and backs revised bid from Henderson

PFI specialist John Laing has recommended Henderson’s £1bn takeover offer announced it is withdrawing its recommendation for Allianz's lower bid.

In a statement today the board said that it considered the fund manager’s revised offer of 405p per share, which trumps the 385p per share recommended offer by German insurer Allainz last month, to be “fair and reasonable”.

The offer, which values the company at about £1bn, is 50p per share higher than Henderson’s original September bid.

The battle for John Laing started in September when the board accepted the 355p per share offer from Henderson. The board were due to vote on that on 1 November but was cancelled when Allianz made its 385p per share offer on 27 October.

Laing said the offer also enable Laing's preference shareholders to receive 138p per preference share. This is the same amount as they would receive under the Allianz Proposals.

Laing said it expected the formal offer to be posted by Henderson to all Laing shareholders within 28 days from 10 November.