Peel is a long term investor in Harworth, and its subsidiary Goodweather Holdings currently owns around 29.96% of its stock.
Harworth owns and manages a portfolio of assets predominantly comprising modern industrial and logistics investment properties and strategic land holdings, located principally in the North of England and the Midlands.
Peel says it believes Harworth’s cash flow profile is increasingly becoming less sustainable driven partly by Harworth’s increasing administrative cost base and increasing net interest expense, which are significantly higher, Peel says, than its recurring rental income.
For the financial year ended 31 December 2025, Harworth’s administrative expenses and net interest expenses were £36.34m and £10.6m respectively, an increase of 9.5% and 58.2% respectively on the prior financial year, whilst the investment portfolio’s passing rental income was £14.70 million, a decrease of 7.0 per cent. on the prior financial year.
Peel says the offer would provide Harworth shareholders with certainty of value in cash at a significant premium of 36.9% to the volume-weighted average price over the last one-month period and 36.0% to last three-month average.
Peel further argues that Harworth’s highly concentrated shareholder register impacts its share liquidity and limits growth. The largest three shareholders own approximately 75.7% of Harworth’s share capital. The real estate investor argues that Harworth receives little benefit from being listed, saying that it has not raised new equity in the last nine years, and believing that it would not be able to raise new equity accretively today given, what Peel describes as a ‘consistent discount’ in its valuation.
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