Peel seeks full control of Harworth with £583m cash bid

The offer is to acquire the remaining shares in the Yorkshire-based regeneration specialist, with Peel arguing the business would be better positioned as a privately owned company under its full control.

Peel’s roughly 30% ownership of Harworth is through its subsidiary Goodweather Holdings, with the company now offering 172.5p per share in cash for the remaining equity.

The offer represents a 20.1% premium to Harworth’s closing share price on 5 August and a 36% premium to its three-month volume-weighted average share price.

If successful, the deal would see Harworth delist from the London Stock Exchange and become wholly owned by Peel.

Peel said it believes Harworth’s portfolio of industrial and logistics property and strategic land would be “best owned, managed, and developed” within its own business.

In outlining its reasons for the bid, Peel argued Harworth has traded at a persistent discount on the stock market and that its listing now provides limited strategic benefit.

The group also questioned Harworth’s current business model, claiming rising administration and borrowing costs are placing pressure on cash generation.

According to Peel, Harworth’s administrative expenses reached £36.3m during 2025, while net interest costs increased to £10.6m, compared with passing rental income of £14.7m.

Peel also highlighted what it described as modest returns in recent years, noting Harworth has delivered annualised total accounting returns of 4.2% over the past four financial years.

The company said Harworth’s development-led strategy is becoming increasingly capital intensive and argued the business should instead focus more heavily on strategic land promotion and selective development within a private ownership structure.

Peel added that Harworth’s concentrated shareholder base, with its three largest investors controlling around 75.7% of the company, has reduced the benefits of remaining publicly listed.

The offer values Harworth’s entire issued and to-be-issued share capital at approximately £582.9m. Peel said it will fund the acquisition from existing cash resources.

Should the acquisition complete, Peel intends to undertake a strategic review of the business over the following six months.

The group said this could include restructuring head office functions, simplifying management and governance, accelerating selected asset disposals, and reviewing opportunities to integrate Harworth with Peel’s existing property platforms.

Peel also said the transaction is expected to lead to “significant headcount reductions” through the removal of overlapping roles and the elimination of costs associated with Harworth’s listed status, although no decisions have yet been made on the number of jobs affected.

Harworth, headquartered in Rotherham, owns more than 15,000 acres of land across the North of England and the Midlands, with the potential to deliver more than 35m sq ft of employment space and enable around 29,000 homes. The business reported revenue of £129.7m and profit after tax of £9.5m for the year ended 31 December 2025.

Under UK takeover rules, Peel’s offer is conditional on securing acceptances representing more than 50% of Harworth’s voting rights – which, given it already owns the aformentioned 30%, means it only needs to convince enough additional shareholders to allow the takeover to proceed.

Peel’s links with Harworth stretch back almost two decades. The group was a major shareholder in UK Coal, from which Harworth emerged as a standalone listed regeneration and land business following UK Coal’s restructuring in 2014.