Shares in the Christmas savings group founded by former Everton FC and Tranmere Rovers owner Peter Johnson have jumped by more than 50% after a £83m deal for it be acquired by Paypoint was revealed.
Liverpool-headquartered Appreciate Group's brands include Love2shop, highstreetvounchers.com, Park Christmas Savings and Appreciate Business Services and is listed on AIM.
Shares in the group were trading at their highest level since March 2020 following the announcement this morning.
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Appreciate was founded by former Everton and Tranmere chairman Peter Johnson and was known as Park Group until 2019. It was best known for its Christmas hampers but has long diversified into a wider range of savings products
Major shareholders in Appreciate Group include Artemis Investment Management, Harwood Capital LLP, Schroder Investment Management, Premier Miton Investors and Soros Fund Management.
The news comes after the group announced the acquisition of MBL Holdco Ltd, a North East-based gift card technology provider to UK businesses and consumers, from Redu Group Ltd in June.
For its most recent financial year, the 12 months to March 31, 2022, the group reported a revenue of £123.2m and pre-tax losses of £1.2m.
PayPoint chief executive Nick Wiles said: "The PayPoint board believe the proposed acquisition of Appreciate Group provides a compelling opportunity to acquire a highly complementary business with well-established offerings in prepayment savings and the corporate and consumer gift card and voucher sector.
"Appreciate Group brings a well-established technology platform, a strong customer base, a network of popular brand partners and significant headroom for growth across the UK consumer and corporate gifting markets which is valued at more than £8bn in the UK.
"The acquisition will strengthen our digital payments offering and create an enhanced retail proposition across our partner network, including more than 28,000 convenience stores, delivering additional growth opportunities for the Enlarged Group.
"More specifically, the proposed acquisition would jointly target growth in three broad areas: prepayment saving through Park Christmas Savings to support customers with budgeting tools for Christmas and other events; an enlarged full-service offering for gifting, employee rewards and benefits to Appreciate Group's corporate clients; and an extended consumer gifting network for the Love2shop brand.
"PayPoint's board believes that Appreciate Group is an earnings enhancing acquisition that will deliver attractive returns for shareholders."
Appreciate Group executive chairman Guy Parsons added: "PayPoint's offer represents an attractive premium for Appreciate Group shareholders providing an opportunity to exit the majority of their shareholdings for cash, whilst participating in the potential upside of the combined Appreciate Group and PayPoint businesses over the long-term.
"We believe that all three segments of the Wider Appreciate Group's business can prosper under PayPoint's ownership given PayPoint's capabilities, and that the acquisition represents a good opportunity for all our stakeholders to benefit from both the immediate cash consideration and the potential future value creation and enhanced capabilities to Appreciate Group's consumer and corporate clients arising as a result of the combination of the businesses."
Jefferies and Pinsent Masons LLP are advising PayPoint while Liberum, Addleshaw Goddard LLP and Herax Partners are advising Appreciate Group.
Appreciate Group is expected to publish its half-year results for the six months to September 30, 2022, on Tuesday, November 22.
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