Havelock Europa 'not interested' in a potential merger

HAVELOCK Europa, the Fife-based shopfitting firm in which a private investor has built up an 18 per cent stake this year, is understood to have been approached by a competitor in recent months over a potential merger.

It is thought the English company had discussed the possibility of a deal but that Aim-listed Havelock Europa rebuffed the interest.

The development emerged as Andrew Burgess, who has been steadily increasing his stake in the company, prompting speculation that corporate action may be in the offing, last week bought another 50,000 shares in the company to take his holding to 18.04 per cent.

Shares in the company have almost doubled since the beginning of the year - partly fuelled by interest in Burgess' stakebuilding - but are still less than a tenth the price they hit in 2006.

Burgess can be revealed as a 40-year-old accountant and former group finance director at a major Lincolnshire-based company called Paragon Print and Packaging. He has built up stakes in a number of smaller stock market companies in recent years and it is understood he was initially attracted to Havelock Europa by its point-of-sale printing division.

Burgess has previously described his intentions with regard to his investment Havelock Europa as "capital growth with excellent shareholder communications and putting shareholders first".

Havelock Europa's AGM is on 29 September - when current chief executive Eric Prescott will have been in place for just over a year - and investors will be keen for an update on trading in the first half of the year.

The company's second largest shareholder is Clayhill Overseas, a Saudi-based investment company which has held a stake of around 9 per cent for almost a decade.