22nd Apr 2016 07:54
LONDON (Alliance News) - Steinhoff International Holdings NV on Friday said its wholly-owned subsidiary Steinhoff Finance Holdings GmbH has bought 4.8 million shares in European electrical retailer Darty PLC at 160 pence each.
Steinhoff now holds 108 million shares in Darty, representing 20% of its issued share capital.
The news comes the South-African based furniture and household goods retailer had engaged in a bidding war with French retail chain Groupe Fnac SA to buy Darty.
The last bid came from Steinhoff on Thursday afternoon at 160p per share, valuing Darty at GBP860 million.
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, Groupe Fnac put in a bid of 153p 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 150p per share.
Groupe Fnac was the first to put in an offer for Darty, initially making an offer of 105.4p per share last November, and which Darty had previously recommended shareholders accept.
However, in March, Steinhoff made a much higher competing offer of 125p, 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 138p per share, before Groupe Fnac fought back with a new offer of 145p per share on Thursday morning, beginning a day of bidding competition.
Shares in Darty were trading up 0.9% at 163p on Friday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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