Australia's largest retailer Coles Myer Ltd said yesterday it had been approached by unnamed parties interested in taking over the AU$16.5 billion (US$12.37 billion) company.
Coles Myer refused to name the suitor, but market speculation focussed on US giant Wal-Mart, Britain's Tesco, Germany's Aldi or a private equity consortium.
The news sent Coles Myer shares soaring AU$1.40, or 12 percent, to a record AU$13.10 as investors sought a piece of potentially Australia's largest retail deal.
In a brief statement to the Australian Stock Exchange, Coles Myer said it "had been approached on behalf of parties wishing to hold discussions regarding the company's ownership."
"In line with its fiduciary duties, the board will consider any bona fide proposals which might be put to it by those parties," the statement read.
Coles Myer said that it would proceed with a restructure as it rebrands under the name Coles Group Ltd following the sale in June of the Myer department store chain to a private equity group for AU$1.4 billion.
The company has more than 2,600 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand, employing more than 190,000 people.
Under the restructure plan, its Bi-Lo and K-Mart brands will disappear as the group consolidates under the three brands of Coles, Officeworks and Target.
The company warned earlier this month that the restructure meant there would be a "pause" in profit growth next year.
Tony Pearce, from fund manager Legg Mason, said it was unlikely Coles Myer would welcome a takeover bid.
"I think they're probably as surprised as the rest of us that this has happened, and it seems to have come along very quickly," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"I'd suggest that they're not really happy about it because they're in the process of, you know, they've been working very hard to achieve all the cost savings and rationalization, so I would detect a note of annoyance in the timing of this," he said.
FW Holst retail analyst David Spry said the company's suitor needed to act quickly if it wanted to take over the existing business because it was about to be transformed.
"If anyone was going to bid for Coles they had to do it now before Coles starts going down the track of their new structure, particular if they don't agree with it," he said.
The unexpected announcement overshadowed Coles Myer's scheduled release of annual sales figures, which rose 5.7 percent to AU$34.41 billion in the 12 months to last month.
It also resulted in the Australian stock market surging 1.89 percent with the benchmark SP/ASX 200 jumping 94 points to close at the day's high of 5,055.9.
Earlier, Coles chief executive John Fletcher said the fourth quarter results were achieved in a tight retail environment in which the combination of record fuel prices and higher interest rates are weighing on consumer sentiment.
The group's food and liquor business continues to improve in both headline and comparative sales growth, achieving record annual sales growth, he said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China is mischaracterizing UN Resolution 2758 for its own interests by conflating it with its “one China” principle, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for China and Taiwan Mark Lambert said on Monday. Speaking at a seminar held by the German Marshall Fund, Lambert called for support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the international community at a time when China is increasingly misusing Resolution 2758. The resolution had a clear impact when it changed who occupied the China seat at the UN, Lambert said. “Today, however, the PRC [People’s Republic of China] increasingly mischaracterizes and misuses Resolution 2758 to serve its own interests,” Lambert said. “Beijing