27th Apr 2016 07:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - South Africa's Steinhoff International Holdings NV on Wednesday said it will not increase its bid for electronics retailer Darty PLC, leaving the path clear for rival bidder Groupe Fnac SA to complete a GBP914 million takeover of the UK company.
Steinhoff and France's Groupe Fnac have been engaged in a bidding war in the past week over Darty, the UK-listed electronics retailer with operations in France.
This culminated with Fnac making a final, 170.00 pence per share offer for Darty on Monday. It then continued to acquire further Darty shares on Tuesday, ending up with a stake of around 30% in the company.
Darty shares were down 0.6% to 167.75p Wednesday.
Steinhoff, which is bidding for Darty through its Conforama retail business in France, said on Thursday it would not increase its offer from 160.00p.
"Our independent board and management had a clear valuation in mind for the standalone Darty business. Our final offer of 160p for each Darty share reflects the evaluation criteria we use for all acquisitions, including return on investment and value creation," said Alexander Nodale, the chief executive of Conforama.
"We remain of the opinion that, at this price, the Darty business would have been a good addition to the Steinhoff group of businesses but, at an increased price, it would no longer create sufficient value for Steinhoff shareholders, employees and other stakeholder," he added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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