Industry

One51 takeover of Straight plc cleared

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has cleared the acquisition of container manufacturer Straight plc by One51 Plastics Holdings Limited.

On 14 February 2014, Straight announced that the Irish-based owner of rival wheeled bin manufacturer, MGB Plastics, had approached the company with an interest in acquiring the business, and in May 2014, One51 confirmed a £10.7 millionbid for the firm (at 78 pence per share).

Last month, 98.6 per cent of the shareholders that voted on the acquisition were for the takeover at the price suggested.

It is now expected that the transaction will progress with the cancellation of admission of Straight Shares to trading on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) (a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange), due to take place on 12 August 2014.

From that date, Straight will no longer be a publicly listed company, as its sole shareholder will be One 51.

Jonathan Straight to step down

Once the deal is finalised, Jonathan Straight, currently Straight’s Chief Executive Officer, will step down as director and employee of Straight, but will be retained on an 18-month contract as consultant.

The non-Executive Directors of Straight have also agreed to resign from the board if the offer becomes effective. All positions will be remunerated for their resignation.

Any Executive Directors, other than Jonathan Straight, will continue to serve as usual.

Straight’s board has said that the business will ‘benefit substantially from being part of a larger group that will leverage its existing customer network as well as its product development and branding expertise’.

James Newman, Chairman of Straight, added that the takeover “will bring immediate and long-term benefits to our clients and staff”.  

Reasons for the acquisition

One51 has said that it wished to acquire Straight to ‘build on the success’ of MGB Plastics by making ‘complementary strategic acquisitions in the UK’. It specifically added that the combination of MGB and Straight would create a ‘leading specialist injection moulding group’ in the UK.

Find out more about the One 51 takeover of Straight plc.