Cinven to buy Spice for £251m

Shareholders in Leeds-based Spice will receive 70 pence per share from Cinven's Cilantro Acquisitions, it said in a regulatory disclosure.

Spice had agreed to a period of exclusivity with Cinven until Sept 27 after rebuffing two earlier offers.

Simon Rigby, founder and former chief executive of Spice, said earlier this month that 70 pence a share would be a "tidy" amount, though it remains a far cry from the highs of 130 pence the shares reached in 2007.

Shares in Spice closed on Friday at 66.5 pence. The price being paid by Cinven represents a 40.7 percent premium to the share price on the last day before Spice announced it had been approached.