MAGNERS Cider maker C&C Group has been targeted by activist investor Engine Capital, which is pushing the firm to go private.

C&C Group, which also owns Tennent's and Bulmers, has seen its share price fall 52 per cent in the last five years, and has gone through four CEOs in under four years, with a fifth expected soon.

"C&C has been a perennial underperformer and today is deeply misunderstood and undervalued by the market because of a combination of structural and self-inflicted problems," the hedge fund said in a letter to C&C's board that was published yesterday.

The investment firm said "succession missteps, strategic mistakes, execution blunders, and an inability to return to its higher historical earnings profile" were to blame for its low valuation.

Engine estimated that if C&C were to go private, it would sell for at least a 58 per cent premium to its current share price.

C&C Group declined to comment.

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper