21st Apr 2016 08:48
LONDON (Alliance News) - French retail chain Groupe Fnac SA on Thursday said it has increased its offer for fellow European electrical retailer Darty PLC, after rival bidder Steinhoff International Holdings NV put in a higher offer on Wednesday.
Groupe Fnac initially made an offer of 105.4 pence per Darty share last November, which Darty had previously recommended shareholders to 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.
Then on Wednesday, Steinhoff increased its offer to 138.0 pence per share, valuing Darty at GBP742.0 million.
On Thursday, Groupe Fnac fought back with a new offer of 145.0 pence per share, valuing Darty at GBP779 million.
The increased 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.
The new offer will also include a partial share alternative representing four new Groupe Fnac shares for every 125 Darty shares.
Groupe Fnac said that if the 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.
Later on Thursday morning, Darty released a statement saying it will consider the offers by both Groupe Fnac and Steinhoff and will provide further advice to shareholders in due course.
Shares in Darty were trading up 13% at 149.03 pence on Thursday morning, the best performer in the FTSE All-Share.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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