A bid by French household goods group Conforama, majority-owned by South Africa’s Steinhoff International Holdings NV, for rival Darty PLC has won the backing of Darty’s board, both companies said on Friday, derailing a planned Darty tie-up with French retail giant Groupe Fnac SA.
Conforama earlier this month launched a conditional all-cash offer for Darty at US$1.75 per share, aiming to create “a leading French household goods retailer.”
The surprise announcement threw a spanner in the works for French books, music and electronics retailer Fnac, which had hoped to take over Darty in an agreed bid.
Friday’s statement said the board of Darty — which is listed on the London Stock Exchange — unanimously recommends to shareholders to sell their shares to Conforama, whose bid is now firm.
Darty’s board members “consider that the financial terms of the offer are reasonable and equitable,” it said.
“The board has the intention of recommending the offer to shareholders,” Darty chairman Alan Parker said in the statement.
This shift in Darty’s allegiances means that Fnac is now sidelined, unless it comes up with a higher offer to trump Conforama.
“Darty board members no longer have the intention of recommending the Fnac bid, unless there is a more favorable offer, both in financial terms and regarding the certainty of its execution,” the statement said.
In November last year, Fnac offered one of its shares for 37 of Darty’s shares as part of a plan to merge both companies.
This valued Darty shares at about US$1.52 each, and the Darty group at US$807.48 million.
The Conforama bid values Darty at about US$922 million.
Three experts in the high technology industry have said that US President Donald Trump’s pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors is part of an effort to force Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to the negotiating table. In a speech to Republicans on Jan. 27, Trump said he intends to impose tariffs on Taiwan to bring chip production to the US. “The incentive is going to be they’re not going to want to pay a 25, 50 or even a 100 percent tax,” he said. Darson Chiu (邱達生), an economics professor at Taichung-based Tunghai University and director-general of
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly making another pass at Nissan Motor Co, as the Japanese automaker's tie-up with Honda Motor Co falls apart. Nissan shares rose as much as 6 percent after Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported that Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) instructed former Nissan executive Jun Seki to connect with French carmaker Renault SA, which holds about 36 percent of Nissan’s stock. Hon Hai, the Taiwanese iPhone-maker also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), was exploring an investment or buyout of Nissan last year, but backed off in December after the Japanese carmaker penned a deal
‘LEGACY CHIPS’: Chinese companies have dramatically increased mature chip production capacity, but the West’s drive for secure supply chains offers a lifeline for Taiwan When Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) entered a deal with the eastern Chinese city of Hefei in 2015 to set up a new chip foundry, it hoped the move would help provide better access to the promising Chinese market. However, nine years later, that Chinese foundry, Nexchip Semiconductor Corp (合晶集成), has become one of its biggest rivals in the legacy chip space, leveraging steep discounts after Beijing’s localization call forced Powerchip to give up the once-lucrative business making integrated circuits for Chinese flat panels. Nexchip is among Chinese foundries quickly winning market share in the crucial US$56.3 billion industry of so-called legacy
WASHINGTON POLICY: Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs are tipped to hit shipments of small parcels, cutting export growth by 1.3 percentage points The decision by US President Donald Trump to ban Chinese companies from using a US tariff loophole would hit tens of billions of dollars of trade and reduce China’s economic growth this year, according to new estimates by economists at Nomura Holdings Inc. According to Nomura’s estimates, last year companies such as Shein (希音) and PDD Holdings Inc’s (拼多多控股) Temu shipped US$46 billion of small parcels to the US to take advantage of the rule that allows items with a declared value under US$800 to enter the US tariff-free. Tariffs of 10 percent or more and other new costs would slash such