Seraphine Group PLC (LSE:BUMP), the maternity wear group, is being bought back by the private equity group that floated it after just eighteen months for a tenth of the price.
Mayfair Equity Partners has offered 30p per share cash for Seraphine, compared to the price of 295p it received when it sold 3.685mln shares in July 2021 at the time of its IPO.
Seraphine was valued at £150mln when it was listed on the premium section of the London Stock Exchange main market having raised £56mln in new money to pay off loans from Mayfair and its own directors.
Today’s offer values the group at £15.3mln but still represents a 206% premium to the close yesterday with the share price diving again in November after another profit warning.
Sharon Flood, Seraphine’s chair, in recommending the offer, said that raising additional capital would be highly dilutive and it would take time to restore the company's previous value.
"Seraphine has faced an extraordinary convergence of challenges since listing in 2021 including the global supply chain crisis, the cost of living crisis and substantial inflation in online marketing costs.
"Whilst the whole retail sector has been affected by these issues, Seraphine, a relatively smaller company new to the London Stock Exchange with a large reliance on e-commerce, has, we believe, been disproportionately challenged," she added.
Bertie Aykroyd, a partner at Mayfair, noted that as a major shareholder in the company, it remains supportive of management and its strategy.
“However, Mayfair believes that the company's share price is negatively impacting Seraphine's ability to deliver on its strategy and attract and retain talent,” he said.