Former pubco Paramount primed for sale
Former pub company Paramount will be ready to be sold and reborn in a new identity after a restructuring is completed this week.
Its founders are due to step down as non-executive directors at its final annual general meeting on Thursday (August 2).
A new board will take over and look for buyers for the business, which has the attraction of a full listing on the stock exchange despite having no assets.
Paramount's 145 tenanted pubs were bought by the Royal Bank of Scotland over a year ago for £19.6m and are now part of the estate run by Pyramid Pub Management.
Paramount's directors now head Pyramid, based in Cheshire, but they have continued in non-executive roles at their old company.
Former chief executive Paul Davies, who is now chief executive at Pyramid, led a management buy-out that created Paramount four years ago.
He will leave at the same time as the pubco's former directors Neil Roe, John Dangerfield and Michael Lunn.
The board of Paramount has spent the last year simplifying the company's complex share structure and moved it from the pub sector on the stock exchange.
It is now classed as "speciality and other finance" and is likely to appeal to private companies seeking a reverse takeover as a quick backdoor onto the shares market.
The new chairman of Paramount will be Guy Naggar, who is chairman of property investment firm Dawnay Day International. He was formerly boss of Delyn, another cash shell which acquired Ingenta, which provides internet services for research publishers, in a reverse takeover last year.
The new finance director will be Ralph Elman, who was also a director of Delyn.
Michael Lunn, the current chairman, said: "The new directors will take the group forward, continuing to seek a transaction that has the potential to enhance shareholder value."
Related stories:
Pyramid receives investment of £8m (May 29, 2001)
Bank cashes in on tenancy deal (July 10, 2000)
