Day to take Bonmarché private as shareholder sells

Philip Day’s Spectre Holdings is set to take Wakefield fashion firm Bonmarché Holdings private after the retailer’s last major institutional shareholder sold its stake in the company.

Artemis Investment Management, which held more than 12% of Bonmarché, has sold its shares.

The sale puts Dubai-based Spectre above the necessary 75% required to take the company off the stock market.

Spectre now owns around 83% of Bonmarché and will likely move to de-list it once the offer closes this week.

The move by Artemis follows the exit of Cavendish, which held 10.8% of the Bonmarché shares.

Both fund firms accepted the 11.4p a share offer made by Day, who is also the owner of Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group.

The takeover offer, made in early April, valued Bonmarché at £5.7 million.

Shares in Bonmarche were trading about 2% lower at 11.50p on Wednesday afternoon.