Alan Sugar has had enough of the travails of running a quoted company that fails to live up to market expectations, and is proposing to take his Amstrad Plc private for a lowly 30 pence a share – the shares reached 237 pence at their peak – if he can raise the necessary cash. He currently owns 35.4% and the 30 pence price would value Amstrad at UKP170m and require him to find about UKP110m. Amstrad said it had been informed of Sugar’s plan to make the offer, subject to his obtaining the necessary finance, but it said no firm decision had yet been taken, and a further announcement would be made in due course. Amstrad shares, which had opened at 24 pence, rose as high as 30.5 pence on the news before falling back to 28 pence. With the company expected to report losses of up to UKP75m for the year to June against profits of UKP20.2m last year, there is little to go for in the shares in the short term, but gossip in the market had had him offering as much as 45 pence a share, so the proposed price would be a disappointment. High profile individuals that felt intolerably harassed by what they have seen as market short-termism have had mixed fortunes when they proposed to take their toys away and play privately: Richard Branson and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber succeeded with their Virgin Group Plc and Really Useful Group Plc, Chris Wright failed with his Chrysalis Group Plc because his institutional holders thought his offer too low.
