Brand Architekts shares double after Warpaint announces £14m takeover

(Sharecast News) - Shares in British cosmetics challenger brand Brand Architekts nearly doubled in price on Thursday after larger rival Warpaint announced a £13.9m takeover. Warpaint, whose flagship brands are W7 and Technic, said it had reached an agreement with Brand Architekts' board regarding a cash offer for the company, which has been unanimously recommended by the latter's directors.

The 48p-per-share offer is a 100% premium to Wednesday's closing price of 24p, and an 85.4% premium to the stock's average price over the past three months.

Brand Architekts shareholders may elect to receive 0.0916 new Warpaint shares for each Brand Architekts share they hold as an alternative to the cash offer.

Brand Architekts' stock was up 93% at 46.32p by 0959 GMT, while Warpaint rose 2.5% to 537p.

Warpaint said the acquisition is an "exciting and relatively low risk opportunity to further bolster [...] growth opportunities".

"The proposed acquisition of Brand Architekts provides an attractive strategic opportunity to supplement our on-going international organic growth by integrating Brand Architekts' highly complementary brands into Warpaint's portfolio and leveraging the enhanced range of brands across a wider number of customer relationships," said Warpaint's chief executive Sam Bazini.

Warpaint raised £14m by way of share placing on Thursday to fund the acquisition, along with £1m via a retail offer of new shares to help with general working capital purposes.