Bonmarché directors sell out to Philip Day's Spectre

Bonmarché CEO, CFO and senior non-executive director have all sold their shares to retail tycoon's Philip Day's investment vehicle Spectre.

In a stock market announcement Helen Connolly, Stephen Alldridge and Ishbel Macpherson revealed they had accepted Spectre's 11.45p per share offer which valued the company at £5.7m.

The bosses of the value fashion chain had initially rejected Day's offer for the business but late last month they u-turned and recommended his offer to shareholders following a worsening in trading.

This led to Philip Day closing his offer saying that if he hadn't acquired more than 75% of its shares by 12 July the deal was off, placing pressure on shareholders to capitulate.

Last week a major investor in the firm, fund manager Cavendish, sold its 10.8% stake to Day slamming the retailer's management team as "incompetent" in the process. At that point it was believed that Day's holding was more than 65%.

Day has said that should he acquire his target percentage of shares, the company will be delisted. Should he be successful in his bid, the company will join his retail empire that also includes Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Jaeger, Peacocks and Jacques Vert.