Whittaker's Peel Holdings has £96.1m bid for Pinewood Shepperton approved by the James Bond film studio's board of directors
When billionaire property developer John Whittaker opened Manchester's Trafford Centre 13 years ago he marked the occasion by descending into the shopping mall on a zip wire.
Now that Whittaker's Peel Holdings has had its £96.1m bid for Pinewood Shepperton approved by the James Bond film studio's board of directors, it remains to be seen whether he will be donning the jetpack worn by Sean Connery in Thunderball.
Peel, which already owns 29.8% of Pinewood, raised its original bid for the business by £8m following rival interest from Fulham FC owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
The cash offer of 200p a share is likely to net Pinewood's chairman, former ITV executive chairman Michael Grade, about £1.2m, and its chief executive, Ivan Dunleavy, about £2.4m. Both men will remain with the company following the takeover should it go through.
Fayed emerged as a potential bidder for Pinewood last week. However, with Pinewood's second largest shareholder, the investment fund Crystal Amber, also prepared to support Peel's bid, the former Harrods owner will have to make a significantly higher offer if he is to succeed.
Crystal Amber said it would only be prepared to consider a rival offer of at least 250p a share, valuing the business at around £125m. A spokesman for Fayed did not return calls seeking comment. Pinewood shares, which have risen more than 25% since Peel's initial offer on 8 April, were down 1.25% at 211.75p, slightly above the offer price.
Grade said the proposal provided Pinewood with the "long-term stability it needs to build on the success of the past few years" and predicted that the business "will pass into safe hands".
Whittaker, 69, is the 50th richest man in Britain with a personal fortune estimated at £1.06bn, according to last year's Sunday Times Rich List.
A privately-owned family business in which all four of Whittaker's children work, the Peel Group owns and manages more than £6bn of assets from hotels to airports, including Liverpool's John Lennon airport and the Manchester Ship Canal company. It is also the second largest ports group in Britain. It became the major shareholder of Britain's biggest shopping centre owner, Capital Shopping Centres, in January this year after a battle that lasted months.
Peel said Pinewood Shepperton would operate independently of the company's other media assets, which include the 36-acre MediaCityUK development at Salford Quays, home to the new BBC North headquarters and, from next year, ITV soap Coronation Street.
The 75-year-old business is planning an ambitious £200m Project Pinewood expansion at its studios in Buckinghamshire that will see it build new facilities and sets to rival those found in Hollywood.