Hands turns heat up on Novera dissidents

Corporate raider Guy Hands has given shareholders in green energy company Novera three options, none of them palatable, analysts warned today.

The increasingly acrimonious struggle for Novera's control was lit up yesterday when eight blue-chip shareholders speaking for 32% of Novera said they would not back the 62½p-a-share offer for the company by Infinis, the UK's largest independent generator of green energy owned by Hands's Terra Firma private equity arm.

Infinis shot back with a statement to the Stock Exchange overtly warning the terms of its offer mean that as it has already swept up 42.6% of Novera's shares it will take control if it picks up just another 7.4% of the company.

That, say analysts, puts Novera's shareholders — including 3i, Aviva and Caledonia — in a difficult position.

Either they accept Hands's offer, even though it is 30% below an offer he made last year and way off the 90p most analysts think the company is worth, or they hold out.

In that case, if Hands fails to win 50%, dissident investors face a collapse in the share price. Or if he wins just a little over 50% but they refuse to sell their minority holdings then Hands has threatened either to issue more shares to dilute the minorities or asset strip Novera by selling its landfill gas and windfarms to Infinis.