Shares of Wetherby-based ecommerce firm Proactis Holdings rose about 17% on Monday after it said it has received a “preliminary unsolicited approach from a US-based investor with regard to an offer for the company and a number of preliminary unsolicited expressions of interest from other parties.”

In a stock exchange statement, Proactis said: “The board of Proactis confirms its confidence in the prospects and position of the company as an independent business and the board is continuing to execute the strategy set out at the time of the interim results for the six months ended 31 January 2019 (as announced on 29 April 2019) which reflects the conclusions of its operational review.  

“Notwithstanding this confidence, the board believes that it is important to all the group’s stakeholders to explore the strategic options that these expressions of interest could present.

“The board has therefore resolved to facilitate a review of these expressions of interest by taking advantage of the dispensations available from certain provisions of the Code in commencing a “formal sales process” (as described in the Code) and has appointed finnCap Ltd as its financial adviser with regard to this process.  

“Parties with an interest in participating in the process should contact finnCap …

“Following this announcement, the company is now considered to be in an ‘offer period’ as defined in the Code …

“At this early stage, there can be no certainty that any offer will be forthcoming or the terms of any such offer …”