Rejected Nisa-Today’s suitor to rally support

Bibby Line planned to write to Nisa Today’s 674 members this week with details of the £133m takeover bid that was rejected by Nisa Today’s board – which controversially did not consult its members. It was the second bid to be rebuffed by Nisa Today’s.

 A source close to Bibby said it is “disappointed” the bid was not put to members and wished to lay out its plans in an effort to rally members to overturn Nisa Today’s decision.

Nisa-Today’s said the second approach “represented a significant improvement” on last month’s first offer but that it was still “not in the best interests of the company’s members, and was therefore rejected”.

Nisa-Today’s said if accepted, the deal would have resulted in the demutualisation of the company and a “fundamental change” of ownership and control.

Bibby, which bid for the company because it feared that it might lose a £75m-a-year distribution contract for Nisa-Today’s, said this would be its final bid.

Nisa Today’s said: “It continues to be very much business as usual.” The company said its members – including its largest Costcutter, which is 51% owned by Bibby – were “strongly in favour” of retaining the mutual business model and the “unique culture focusing on member benefits”.

The buying group said the second approach represented a “significant undervaluation” of Nisa-Today’s, and it didn’t approve of the prospect of deferred payment and payment conditional on future performance.

Bibby’s first offer of £1,000 a share was dismissed by Nisa-Today’s board without allowing its members to vote, on the grounds that it “significantly undervalued” the company. Its second offer last week of about £1,200 a share was also rejected.

Last month members of Nisa-Today’s shared £500,000 after the business achieved an 11% increase in turnover last year.

Scunthorpe-based Nisa-Today’s operates its own chain of convenience stores while also acting as a co-operative buyer on behalf of other stores.