Over half of Reg Vardy shareholders have accepted Pendragon’s 900p per share offer for the Sunderland based dealer group, however the remaining shareholders could still cause problems for the dealer group’s plans.

Pendragon received 31,027,750 valid acceptances representing 55.2% of Reg Vardy’s share capital.

The remaining Reg Vardy shareholders can still cause problems for Pendragon’s acquisitions plans if they decide not to accept its offer. UBS, the Swiss investment bank owns 17.8% of Reg Vardy and has already said it will not accept 900p per share. However, UBS did say it would accept a £10 per share offer from Pendragon.

If shareholders do not sell to Pendragon, it would mean the dealer group would have control over Reg Vardy, but would not be able to merge the two companies.

Pendragon may have to pay over £30 million more than it originally thought for Reg Vardy in order to achieve a 75% holding necessary to fully merge the two companies.

Pendragon won a bidding war for Reg Vardy, beating Lookers 875p per share bid in January.