LONDON— Hugh Osmond, the leisure entrepreneur heading up a hostile takeover strategy for Six Continents (6C), was facing an uphill battle last night after his hostile £7 billion-plus (or $11 billion) bid was rejected by the company and received a lukewarm response from shareholders, reported The London Times. Shares of 6C fell after Capital Management & Investment (CMI), Osmond’s bid vehicle, launched its offer. Some analysts said that the bid was mostly shares and the deal would effectively just change management at 6C. The focus of many investors’ attention was the level of incentives revealed in CMI’s offer. Although Osmond and his colleagues from Sun Capital Partners, his private investment vehicle, will take no salary for two years, they stand to become very wealthy if they succeed in turning around 6C. Richard North, 6C’s finance director and chief executive of its hotel arm after the planned demerger, was quoted as saying: “Shareholders don’t need somebody who knows nothing about hotels coming in, giving them back 98% of their company and charging them £274 million (or $433 million) for the privilege.” SOURCE: The London Times
