THISTLE HOTELS yesterday
launched a £14 million lawsuit against Orb Estates, the Jersey
property company which is considering a takeover bid for the
hotelier, in a move to recover cash which it alleges is still owing
from a property deal in March.
Thistle is suing for breach of contract, after alleging Orb
ignored repeated demands to settle a £600 million bill covering the
sale of 37 hotels.
Orb, which is understood to have paid £586 million relating to
the transaction, yesterday filed a counter-claim.
The property group said that it was “surprised” at the move and
that it had expected the dispute to go to arbitration. The company
added that the timing of Thistle’s writ was “interesting”.
Earlier Orb confirmed it was considering a bid for Thistle at a
“modest premium” to its current share price, which pushed Thistle’s
shares up by 6p to 135½p, valuing the company at about £652 million.
Thistle’s shares previously rose 13½p on Friday to 129½p as rumours
leaked out of the approach.
Orb has already held talks with Camerlin, a Malaysian company, to
buy its 22 per cent stake in BIL International, a Singaporean
company that in turn controls 46 per cent of Thistle.
However, Thistle and BIL said yesterday that neither company had
been approached directly by Orb.
Thistle was last subject to takeover speculation in February 2001
when Guy Hands, who at that time ran Nomura’s Principal Finance
Group, approached the Leeds-based company with a £1 billion bid.
See IRG research reports
