UFO Info Week-End

When the time is right he said he’d like to come and

When the time is right he said he’d like to come and talk to me.”Yesterday Pidgley junior owned up to his interest in a statement to the Stock Exchange. He is “evaluating a possible approach” for Berkeley but added that “matters are at a very preliminary stage”. No price was mentioned and any offer is dependent on “satisfactory due diligence and arranging financing”. The father is philosophical about the prospect of the bid and, if he was at all annoyed about it, he did not show it. Others says he is probably quietly proud of what his son is up to.”If he pays the right price, his money is as good as anyone’s .. I suppose he considers that he knows this company He grew up around it Perhaps it’s always been his dream to run Berkeley. I don’t know.”What father and son are very keen to dismiss is any notion that there is a family feud – that this is Pidgley junior landing a blow on dad’s life’s work.

Certainly the elder Pidgley is remarkably relaxed about the situation.”Business is business and family is family,” says the patriarch “I have an ambitious son .. We have a good relationship. We see each other at Christmas and on other days, through highs and lows. I enjoy his company.”Pidgley junior was remaining coy about the details of his plan, simply saying that he is talking with his advisors and that the newspaper articles had forced out yesterday’s statement. He didn’t name his advisors but he is thought to have hooked up with Merrill Lynch. He says it was not pleasant to read reports of a family feud.”I don’t believe there’s a situation there We have a normal relationship … we’re fine,” he says.A weekend report suggested that an offer would be pitched at 780p a share.

That may be a significant premium to Berkeley’s recent share price – which closed up 5 per cent yesterday at 687.5p. But Pidgley senior is adamant that it must come at a significant premium to the company’s net asset value, which is considerably more. And he says there is no conflict of interest that would take him out of the task of considering an offer from his son.”We’ve got to make sure he’s got the financing … I could not recommend any offer not in excess of net asset value,” he says.For the current year, net asset value is forecast at over 800p – valuing the company at £1.1bn, plus £300m of debt.

Some in the City reckon the real NAV could be well over 1,000p. Pidgley senior, who owns 3 million shares or 2 per cent of the company, says the obvious response might be to put forward he own buyout proposal but he has no intention of doing so. With unusual candour, he says he would get tied up in conflicts of interest, in both knowing how much the business is properly worth while trying to get it at a good price.Father and son both have a potent entrepreneurial drive but while Pidgley senior came from a very poor family, junior is a polo-playing former public schoolboy. The adopted son of gypsies, whose parents once lived in an abandoned railway carriage, Pidgley senior left school before finishing his education. He soon started his own business, a plant hire venture which he sold to housebuilder Crest Nicholson, which he then joined at the age of 21.