French retailer Fnac Darty on Tuesday offered to buy Italy’s Unieuro for around 249 million euros ($271 million) to create a market leader in consumer electronics and domestic appliances in southern and western Europe.
Fnac Darty said that, together with Ruby Equity Investment, it intended to offer 12 euros per share in cash and shares for the Italian consumer electronics distributor.
Unieuro, whose shares closed at 8.24 euros on Tuesday, said its board met to “take note” of the proposal.
“The Board of Directors reserves the right to make any assessment in this regard and, once it has acquired the necessary information, will take the relevant resolutions,” the company said in a statement.
“We’ve sent an offer today, to the board, to submit to all the shareholders (…) We don’t know what will be the outcome or the response from them,” Fnac Darty CEO Enrique Martinez said on a call.
He added Unieuro had “a couple of weeks” to consider the offer.
Fnac Darty said the merged company would aim for over 10 billion euros in annual sales, and have around 30,000 employees as well as more than 1,500 stores.
“Our geographical presence would be significantly expanded, and we would support Unieuro in continuing its digitalization and transformation towards more services,” Martinez added in a statement.
Fnac Darty said it expected the deal to deliver over 20 million euros of benefits before taxes, primarily from improved buying terms, and to boost earnings per share by more than 10% from 2025.
It expects the offer to close in the fourth quarter.
The offer comprises 9 euros per share in cash, funded two- thirds by Ruby Equity Investment and one-third by Fnac Darty, plus 0.1 new Fnac Darty share for each Unieuro share.
That would see the French retailer issue around 2 million shares, or about 6.6% of its share capital post-transaction.
Source: Reuters.com