Hargreaves Lansdown founder watching takeover bid ‘with interest’

The founder of investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown has said he is watching the takeover attempt by a consortium of private equity investors “with interest” after news of the bid came to light this week.

The do-it-yourself investment platform said the board “unanimously rejected” the offer from the group of investors, which includes CVC and a unit owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund when it was made in late April because it “substantially undervalues Hargreaves Lansdown and its future prospects”.

Shares in the Bristol-headquartered firm jumped over 15 per cent yesterday morning following the news of a takeover attempt.

Founder Peter Hargreaves, who owns roughly a fifth of the firm, refused to comment on the company’s decision to bat away the 985p-a-share offer when approached by The Times.

“I really feel at this point in the proceedings that anything I say could be completely misconstrued,” Hargreaves told The Times. “I’ve noted it’s happening and I’m sitting watching with interest.”

Stephen Lansdown, the other founder, who owns around five per cent of the company, told the paper that the takeover proposal was “interesting and I await developments”.

The group bidding for the company consists of private equity giants CVC, Nordic Capital, and Platinum Ivy, the latter of which is owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. According to the UK Takeover Code, the private equity group must either announce a firm intention to make an offer or state it does not intend to make an offer by 19 June.

While currently in the FTSE 250, the investment firm’s recent strong performance would push it into the FTSE 100 at the next London Stock Exchange re-balancing, sitting as the 97th largest publicly listed company in the UK as of last week.

Hargreaves Lansdown was relegated from the FTSE 100 last November for the first time since it joined the blue chip index in 2011.

Prior to the jump yesterday, Hargreaves’ share price has been steadily climbing since a quarterly trading update revealed that the investment provider saw total revenue jump to £199.7m in the first three months of the year, up from £188.1m.

At the time of reporting, however, Hargreaves Lansdown’s share price was down over three per cent.