Speculation of a take over bid by property magnate Naghsineh has boosted the high street retailer's floundering stock.
Shares in the troubled UK retailer Woolworths are being bought heavily by Aredeshir Naghsineh leading to speculation that the Iranian-born property tycoon will mount a full scale bid for the company.
Through his property company Targetfollow Property Holdings Naghsineh has been rapidly increasing his stake in Woolworths since the end of June. On the 1st July 2008 it was revealed that Naghsineh had an interest in the company of 3%, on Friday that holding had jumped to over 10%.
Shares in Woolworths Group Plc rose 6% to 6.9p on the news, but this is still well below the 23p the stock sold for a year ago. Naghshineh, who has amassed a fortune from his property business, will have his eye on Woolworth’s 820 freehold stores and leases which he may choose to sell onto an ever expanding UK supermarket sector increasingly keen to return to the high street.
Woolworth announced on the 29th July this year that it has already assigned four of its leases to the supermarket chain Waitrose for £18 million with the balance of the cash (£7.5 million) expected in September this year.
According to the last reported accounts Woolworths has Net Assets of over 21p so, even after adjusting for the effect of recent poor trading (Group sales down 3.1% over the last 25 weeks and like for like sales down 6.7% for the six weeks to 26th July) Woolworths realisable assets per share are likely to remain well in excess of Friday’s lowly share price.
Ardeshir Naghshineh founded Targetfollow Property Holdings in 1991 and turned it into one of the largest privately owned property investment companies in the UK.
Today Naghshineh is estimated to control a personal fortune of around £500 million. At the close of business on Friday Woolworth’s shares were trading at a shade under 7p valuing the company at just £100 million.
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