February 1, 2006 To the Board of Directors Whitehall Jewellers, Inc. 155 N. Wacker Drive Chicago, Il 60606 To the Board of Directors:Whitehall Jewellers Inc • February 28th, 2006 • Retail-jewelry stores
Whitehall Jewellers, Inc. (“Whitehall” or the “Company”) has entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with PWJ Lending LLC, PWJ Funding LLC and Holtzman Opportunity Fund, L.P. (“Holtzman”). The transactions contemplated by the Transaction Documents (as defined in the SPA) are hereinafter referred to as the Prentice Transaction. On or about December 2, 2005, Newcastle Partners initiated an unsolicited offer for all the outstanding shares of the Company (“Initial Tender Offer”), and subsequently revised its offer (“Tender Offer”). The Board of Directors engaged Duff & Phelps, LLC (“Duff & Phelps”) as its independent financial advisor in connection with the Tender Offer and any other unsolicited offers that may arise to provide advice regarding whether the Tender Offer and related transactions is more favorable, from a financial point of view, to the Company, its stockholders and creditors, taken as a whole, than the Prentice Transaction (“Superior Proposal”), as outlined in S
