Spice

On 27 September 2010, an announcement was released outlining the terms of a £251.1mlion recommended cash offer by Cinven Limited "Cinven" (through a newly formed entity, Cilantro Acquisitions Limited) for our client Spice plc ("Spice") . The offer price was 70 pence per share, which represented:

• a premium of approximately 40.7 per cent. to the Closing Price of 49.75 pence per Spice Share on 14 June 2010, being the last business day before Spice's announcement that it had received an approach from Cinven;
• a premium of approximately 23.9 per cent. to the Closing Price of 56.5 pence per Spice Share on 31 August 2010, being the last business day before Spice's announcement that it had received a competing offer for Spice.

The Spice Board received an initial approach from Cinven on 24 May 2010 at an indicative price of 56 pence per share, which it rejected as it significantly undervalued Spice. As announced on 6 July, Cinven subsequently increased its conditional proposal to between 62 and 65 pence per share, a level which the Spice Board continued to believe undervalued the business. The final price of 70 pence is 25% ahead of the initial proposal received. The transaction is to be effected by way of a scheme of arrangement and is likely to complete in December 2010.

Canaccord Genuity acted as sole financial advisor to Spice.