All change at board level for Harworth

With Peel now the Yorkshire property group’s majority shareholder, the board that accepted the £632m offer has resigned, with five Peel representatives stepping in.

Terms of the deal were for takeover vehicle Peel Pepper to acquire more than 72m shares in Harworth at a price of 187p/share – an 8.4% increase in price compared to the 172.5p/share initially offered.

HSBC and NatWest are providing backing for the deal. Ultimately, the Greater Manchester-headquartered property and infrastructure group wants to take Harworth private, believing that de-listing will best serve the group’s interests.

Those departing the Rotherham-headquartered land and real estate business’s senior team include chair Alastair Lyons, chief executive Lynda Shillaw, and chief financial officer Kitty Patmore.

There were also a host of non-executives, in Angela Bromfield, Patrick O’Donnell Bourke, Lisa Scenna, Marzia Zafar, Phil Redding, Tony Quinlan, and Martyn Bowes.

Taking over the Harworth board are Peel Group representatives Steven Underwood, Graeme Charnock, John Peter (JP) Whittaker, Ian Ball and Mark Whitworth.

Harworth’s new top team:

Steven Underwood, executive director, is chief executive of the Peel Group, who joined te property giant as corporate development director in 2007, previously spending time in investment banking with Rothschild. He sits on Peel boards including Peel Ports Group, Northstone, Peel Land and Peel Waters. He served as a director of Harworth until November 2024.

​Graeme Charnock, non-executive director, is a chartered accountant who qualified with KPMG. He is a former chief financial officer with a background in project management across the ports, rail, infrastructure, energy, power and process industries. Following his retirement from Peel Ports in April 2022, he works with organisations in a trustee and non-executive capacity.

JP Whittaker, executive director, leads the group investments team at the Peel Group, with primary responsibility for new investments and corporate transactions across its real estate and infrastructure divisions. He is a member of Peel Group’s investment committee and is Peel Group’s representative on a number of its direct and joint venture investments, including Peel Ports, Peel Airports, LEEP, Peel Land and Northstone. He qualified with Cushman & Wakefield and spent time in the investment banking division at Rothschild.

Ian Ball, executive director, worked for Harworth from 2014 to 2022, serving as chief operating officer at the time of his departure. During tat time, he worked on major projects including the purchase of Gateway 45 Leeds, the purchase of NuFarm, the sale of land at Ansty to Frasers, and the creation and build-out of the Multiply Logistics joint venture at Logistics North. Has a background in private equity and banking.

Mark Whitworth, non-executive chair, has been chairman of the Peel Group since 2023 and chairman of Peel Ports since April 2022, prior to which he was the ports arm’s chief executive from 2010 to 2022, earlier running the Peel airports business from 2007 to 2010. Prior to Peel, he worked with M&S and Speedy Hire.