ANDY STEWART, the buccaneering chairman of stockbroker Cenkos, plans to go directly to shareholders in Close Brothers, the blue-blooded British investment bank, to persuade them to accept his £1.4 billion takeover attempt.

Last week the 129-year-old bank, which helped finance the first railway in Alaska, firmly rejected a cash break-up bid from Cenkos and Landsbanki, the Icelandic group.

Close Brothers described the offer as “wholly inadequate”. It said it would “not pursue discussions with the consortium”.

This weekend Stewart told The Sunday Times: “As soon as the Takeover Panel allows me to, I will go to Close Brothers investors – especially those who have already contacted me – to talk about our plans for this deal.

“We’ve got £9.50 per share in cash and we believe they are interested.”

Close Brothers’ three biggest shareholders are Caledonia, Prudential and Lloyds TSB. Between them they hold 30% of the stock and will be key to any deal.

Under the proposal, Cenkos, which has a market value of less than one-seventh of its target’s, would acquire Close Brothers’ asset-management arm, its corporate advisory and investment-banking business and Winterflood, the broker that Close Brothers bought in 1993.

Landsbanki wants to buy the corporate-banking division, which offers deposits and loans to small businesses and amounts to about a third of the group. Close Brothers has been criticised by some analysts for not being aggressive enough in areas such as developing its banking book and using leverage.

Before the bid became public, Close Brothers shares languished at 760p – roughly where they were in 1998 – and down a quarter on the year to date. On Friday they closed at 890p.

Recently Close appointed Jonathan Howell as finance director in an effort to help boost the bank’s fortunes. Howell was formerly finance director of the London Stock Exchange.

Stewart founded Cenkos in 2005, two years after leaving Collins Stewart, the investment bank he co-founded with Leigh Collins. Cenkos listed a year ago. Its shares closed at 243p on Friday.

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