Safestore big names share £26m

SELF-STORAGE company Safestore's directors and major shareholders including Saracens rugby club owner Nigel Wray today share in a £26m payout from the sale of the business through a management buyout.

Wray, a Safestore non-executive director, has made £1m from the sale of his personal stake in the group being sold in a £39.8m deal funded by private equity firm Bridgepoint.

He will also share with fellow property investor Nick Leslau £3.3m their company Prestbury gains from the sale of its 8.22% stake. But the North London entrepreneur's gains are dwarfed by the £10m made from the sale by George Soros Real Estate Investors, which owns 25% of the business.

Chairman Giles Clarke, founder of wine retailer Majestic, is making about £300,000 selling the last part of a stake he has held in Safestore since its demerger in 1998.

Over the past five years Safestore has netted Clarke and associate companies in which he owns large minority stakes nearly £5m through share sales, he said today.

Belazure Acquisitions, a holding company for Bridgepoint and Safestore executive directors led by Stephen Williams, is today offering Safestore shareholders 44p in cash per share, 76% more than the share price when the company announced it was in takeover talks last December.

The offer is at a 16.4% premium to Safestore's net asset value.