Just a day after French furniture retailer Conforama (Steinhoff Group) increased its offer to acquire London-based retail giant Darty, Fnac has launched an unexpected €989M counterbid.
France’s Fnac raised the initial €558M offer it made in November 2015. The 60-year-old French company that sells cultural, and electronic products, announced that it was prepared to offer €1.84 per Darty share in a deal that values Darty at €989M. That’s 10 percent more than the bid made Wednesday by Conforama which valued Darty at €943M.
Fnac also announced that two investment funds had already committed to sell them 22 percent of their Darty shares, overtaking Conforma offer, which announced yesterday that it had commitments for 19.5 percent of Darty’s share.
By acquiring Darty, Fnac would triple its number of stores creating a retail giant with more than 500 stores and annual sales reaching €7billion. Fnac also projects that the merger would help the retailers achieve cost savings and additional sales of at least €130M annually
The stock market battle between these French historic giants is not finished, Darty said in March that they would be open to reconsidering their position in case of a “more favorable offer” from Fnac.