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RANJIT Boparan, the Midlands businessmen who last year became a major player in the seafood industry, has been given less than two weeks to make his move for Northern Foods. The deadline of January 21 has been imposed by the UK's Takeover Panel.
In November, Northern Foods announced plans to merge with the food group Greencore. Although based in Dublin, many of Greencore's manufacturing centres are located in the UK and includes a number of seafood products. Shareholders in both firms are set to vote on the plans by the end of the month. However, two weeks ago, UK poultry and fish group Boparan Holdings, owned by food tycoon and Northern shareholder Ranjit Boparan, said it was mulling over whether to launch a takeover bid for Northern.
Boparan Holdings had confirmed that it was "at a preliminary stage" in evaluating a possible cash offer for Northern. The firm said there was "no certainty" that it would result in an offer being made for the company.
Last year it got into the fish business in a very big way when it bought the Harry Ramsden fish and chip restaurant chain and then moved for Five Star Fish of Grimsby following the collapse of its parent company British Seafood.
It also bought four restaurants from the up-market Fishworks chain. Now the Takeover Panel has taken the bull by the horns and set a deadline for Boparan Holdings to table a bid for Northern Foods which is based in Leeds. The panel insisted that by 21 January Boparan either announces "a firm intention to make an offer" for Northern, including terms of the deal, or confirm that it does not intend to make an offer. Mr Boparan said yesterday that Northern Foods had fantastic products but did not know how to take them to market.
Northern Foods welcomed the panel's move and said it continues to recommend shareholders vote in favour of its proposed merger with Greencore at a meeting on January 31st.
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