21st Apr 2016 13:32
LONDON (Alliance News) - Steinhoff International Holdings NV raised the bar in the bidding war for Darty PLC by putting in a new, higher offer for the European electrical retailer amid a battle with rival bidder Groupe Fnac SA which has been progressing all day Thursday.
Steinhoff's latest bid stands at 160.0 pence per Darty share, valuing Darty at GBP860 million.
Earlier in the afternoon, Groupe Fnac put in a bid of 153.0 pence per Darty share, after it bought 29.6 million Darty shares at the same price, less than an hour after Steinhoff placed a bid of 150.0p per share.
French retail chain Groupe Fnac was the first to put in an offer for Darty, initially making an offer of 105.4 pence per share last November, and which Darty had previously recommended shareholders accept.
However, in March, South-African based furniture and household goods retailer Steinhoff made a much higher competing offer of 125.0p, prompting Darty to withdraw its recommendation of the Groupe Fnac offer in favour of Steinhoff's. Steinhoff made the offer through its subsidiary, Conforama.
On Wednesday, Steinhoff increased its offer to 138.0 pence per share, valuing Darty at GBP742.0 million.
On Thursday morning, Groupe Fnac fought back with a new offer of 145.0 pence per share, valuing Darty at GBP779 million.
The 145.0p offer represents a premium of approximately 79% to Darty's closing share price on September 29, being the last business day before Groupe Fnac first announced an offer, and a premium of approximately 10% to Darty's closing share price on Wednesday.
This, and its latest 153.0p offer will also include a partial share alternative representing four new Groupe Fnac shares for every 125 Darty shares.
Groupe Fnac said that if its offer is accepted, the combined group would have annual sales of over EUR7 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of EUR265 million. The group would have around 400 stores across France and over 210 stores across Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Switzerland, Morocco, Qatar and the Ivory Coast.
The acquisition would also results in annual pretax synergies of at least EUR130 million, Groupe Fnac said.
Also on Thursday, before Steinhoff's and Groupe Fnac's latest offers were announced, Darty released a statement saying it would consider the offers by both Groupe Fnac on Thursday morning and Steinhoff on Wednesday and would provide further advice to shareholders in due course.
Shares in Darty were trading up 24% at 163.38 pence on Thursday afternoon, the best performer in the FTSE All-Share.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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