Jim Flavin said he was “astounded” after DCC’s board backed the FTSE 100 DCC Energy deal, agreeing a £5.75bn private equity takeover from KKR and Energy Capital Partners. The offer moves DCC toward a cash exit at £65.25 a share, with a possible £1.25 top-up tied to Nexora.
The board said the bid “represents a compelling and certain opportunity”, but the price has already split major holders. For DCC shareholders, the immediate issue is whether the cash on the table is enough to accept before the process moves into a formal vote or acceptance stage.
£65.25 a share for DCC
£65.25 a share is the base cash price the consortium has offered for DCC, and the bidders have added a £1.25 per share sweetener if the ongoing sale of Nexora reaches a certain price. On that basis, the offer gives shareholders a clear cash exit, while leaving a further payment linked to how that separate sale is priced.
36% is the premium the cash offer carries over DCC’s average share price over the three-month period before takeover talks became public. DCC shares edged up just more than 1% to £63.60, which leaves the stock close to the bid level and shows the market is trading against the offer rather than pricing in a much larger rival proposal.
Jim Flavin and Aviva Investors
Jim Flavin, one of DCC’s biggest shareholders and the company founder, said, “Why would the board go along with such a charade? I regard this price as totally inadequate,” after calling the board’s backing “astounded”. His objection matters because it comes from a shareholder with skin in the deal, not a passive critic on the sidelines.
Matt Bennison, head of UK active equities at Aviva Investors, had already said last week that the fund would not support the deal if the board recommended it. He later said, “This ‘increased’ offer, a very modest increase to that, is unsurprisingly not enough. We firmly believe that [it] is not in the interest of our clients to sell the business at this level,” and had previously described the terms as one that would “represent a bad outcome for shareholders”.
London Stock Exchange to private
DCC is one of the biggest energy businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange, and the proposed buyout would move another large UK-listed group into private ownership. That leaves holders deciding whether to accept cash now or hold out for a better price in a process that now depends on shareholder backing rather than board support alone.
£830m is the operating profit target DCC set in its 2022 strategy for 2030, showing the group was already measuring itself against a longer-term plan before the takeover approach landed. The offer now interrupts that path and puts the valuation of DCC Energy, rather than the execution of that strategy, at the centre of the debate.
