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Tag: bid

  • PayPal preparing US$45 billion bid for Pinterest

    PayPal preparing US$45 billion bid for Pinterest

    PayPal has made an offer to buy digital pinboard site Pinterest for US$45-billion, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a combination that could herald more tie-ups between fintech and social media companies in e-ecommerce.

    The per-share price would represent a 26% premium to Pinterest’s closing price of $55.58 on Tuesday.

    PayPal plans to finance the acquisition mostly through stock, the sources said.

    The payments behemoth was among the big winners of the pandemic as more people used its services to shop online and pay bills to avoid stepping out. The pandemic boost over the past 12 months have driven up its shares by about 36%, giving it a market capitalization of nearly $320-billion.

    PayPal’s shares were down about 3.5% on Wednesday, while Pinterest was up over 10% at $61.55. Pinterest’s shares, which had jumped over 13% earlier in the day forcing trading to be halted briefly, have shed about 16% of their value this year.

    San Jose, California-based PayPal, and Pinterest did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The sources requested anonymity as the discussions are confidential.

    News of the potential deal comes less than a week after Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp announced plans to leave the company to join LoveFrom, a firm led by Jony Ive, the designer of many iconic Apple products.

    Sharp founded the San Francisco, California-based online scrapbook and photo-sharing platform along with Ben Silbermann, who is the company’s CEO, and Paul Sciarra, who left in 2012.

    Over the past few years, PayPal has displayed growing ambitions to increase its footprint in online shopping through a series of acquisitions, including a $4-billion deal to buy online coupon finder Honey Science in 2019, a $2.7-billion deal to buy Japanese buy-now-pay-later firm Paidy in September this year, and a deal to buy return-service provider Happy Returns in May.

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  • Takeover bid lodged for struggling Laura Ashley

    Takeover bid lodged for struggling Laura Ashley

    US investment company Flacks is considering making a bid for Malaysian-owned, British fashion retailer Laura Ashley. The firm is in the “very preliminary stages” of a takeover bid for the brand. Any possible takeover offer will be limited to 2.748p in cash per share, resulting in an overall valuation for the retailer at around £20 million (US$26.38 million), according to an announcement by the firm confirming the details.

    If Flacks buys Laura Ashley, it is expected to primarily focus on the US market and other non-European markets.

    “As far as I am concerned, there is no takeover bid because there has been no approach whatsoever,” Laura Ashley chairman Andrew Khoo told investors on Monday, a day prior to Flacks’ announcement. “If and when an approach is made, the board will discharge its duties as always and assess it on its relative merits.

    “I would, however, like to state for the record that as major shareholders of Laura Ashley, we have no intention of divesting our controlling stake,” he continued. “Whilst I understand why potential parties would think we are significantly undervalued, I have complete confidence that we will be able to grow profitably and in a sustainable manner so as to create long-term value for our shareholders.”

    A recent report issued by the firm warned that its full-year profits would “fall short of market expectations” following announced plans to close around 30 of its remaining 120 stores to control costs in the firm’s competitive and sluggish market. The firm filed a £1.5 million ($1.98 million) loss in the final half of last year.

    Laura Ashley’s Australian business collapsed late last year, but in December Khoo said he believed the brand’s future lied in Asia, where he was planning expansion.

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  • Sears gets away from bankruptcy

    Sears gets away from bankruptcy

    Sears Holdings chair Edward Lampert’s US$5.2 billion bid to save 425 Sears and Kmart stores and roughly 45,000 jobs from liquidation was approved by a US bankruptcy court judge last week. Lampert’s bid, which he made through his hedge fund ESL Investments Inc., was approved by Judge Robert Drain after a hearing spanning several days in a White Plains, NY, federal bankruptcy court.

    Terms of the sale allow for some litigation to continue against Lampert and ESL.

    Drain said that Lampert, the only bidder offering to keep Sears alive, had been subjected to substantial verbal abuse during the proceedings, with critics characterising the Sears chairman’s plan a scheme to rob the company and its creditors of assets.

    “He is a wealthy individual and a big boy and I guess he can take it,” Drain said, adding that some of the abuse may have been justified.

    As CEO and chairman, Lampert’s time at Sears led to cost-cutting efforts that had resulted in a decline in sales, store closures, and inventory reductions.

    He arranged the US$11 billion merger between Sears and discounter Kmart in 2005 and tried for years to boost business.

    The company’s restructuring officer Mohsin Meghji and company directors Bill Transier and Alan Carr were among those questioned on the witness stand during the court hearing on Lampert’s offer.

    Lampert, who stepped down as CEO when the department store chain filed for bankruptcy in October last year, remained the retailer’s chairman, largest shareholder and creditor. A restructuring committee of independent directors negotiated with Lampert and his advisers.

    Lampert’s offer, which had been rejected more than once, came after the retailer had been pushed to the brink of liquidation multiple times. In the end, he increased his initial offer by $800 million, largely in the assumption of Sears’ bills for taxes and merchandise.

    As per a report, Drain grew impatient as the proceedings wore on Thursday, when a creditor’s committee lawyer argued an objection to the takeover bid.

    It added money owed to lawyers, bankers and other advisers working on the retailer’s bankruptcy case also proved contentious as Sears lacked enough money to meet all its obligations.

    The report added Lampert still remains exposed to lawsuits related to certain transactions he engaged in while leading Sears before filing for bankruptcy.

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  • Sears saved by chairman’s last minute $5.2 billion bid

    Sears saved by chairman’s last minute $5.2 billion bid

    Bankrupt US retailer Sears has been saved from liquidation following a successful, last-minute US$5.2 billion bid by chairman Eddie Lampert, subject to court approval. The acquisition includes substantially all of the company’s assets as an on-going concern and preserves the positions of 45,000 employees.

    “We are pleased to have reached a deal that would provide a path for Sears to emerge from the chapter 11 process,” Sears’ restructuring committee of the board of directors wrote in a release to investors.

    “Importantly, the consummation of the transaction would preserve the employment for tens of thousands of associates, as well as the relationships with many vendors and suppliers who provide Sears with goods and services.”

    Provided the sale is approved by the Bankruptcy Court, the transaction is expected to close on February 8, 2019.

    The retailer had previously announced plans to close up to 120 stores, though it is not clear whether these closures will go forward with the successful bid.

    Lampert made the last-minute bid after several prior offers were turned down for being “administratively insolvent” – unable to cover fees and vendor payments owed by the retailer.

    After initially offering US$4.4 billion to purchase the business, as well as a secondary offer to purchase just 250 of its locations, Lampert was forced to raise his bid to US$5 billion in an effort to get the sale completed.

    But even this bid was deemed insufficient, and Lampert, through bidding vehicle ESL Investments, upped the offer to US$5.2 billion.

    The new bid, while successful, will mean roughly 5000 fewer staff able to keep their jobs as a result of the bankruptcy.

    Sears applied for bankruptcy in October 2018, citing a failing turnaround effort to transform the business and unlock the value of its assets.

    GlobalData Retail managing director Neil Saunders pointed to Sears’ efforts to “shrink its way to profitability”, and that continuing to do so under the guise of bankruptcy was unlikely to result in a successful outcome for the business.

    “Ultimately, Sears needs not just to fix its financial problems,” Saunders said.

    “It also needs to repair the deficiencies in terms of retail strategy… only a complete change of management will bring this about.”

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  • Consistel said to pull ahead in Singapore telco bid

    Consistel said to pull ahead in Singapore telco bid

    Singapore’s Consistel is reportedly pulling ahead of MyRepublic in the race to secure funding to make a play to become the market’s fourth mobile operator.

    Consistel has so far lined up at least S$400 million ($293.8 million) worth of the S$1 billion in funding it plans to raise ahead of a planned spectrum auction in the third quarter, and expects to be able to raise the remainder by the end of the month, citing a Maybank analyst.

    Consistel is reportedly considering a range of funding options, including term loans, equity, and potentially vendor financing.

    By contrast, MyRepublic had aimed to complete an S$250 million funding round by April, but has so far not reported any progress with this goal.

    Consistel is a wireless networking equipment provider specializing in distributed antenna systems (DAS). The company first expressed an interest in becoming Singapore’s fourth MNO – through subsidiary OMGtel – in 2014, not long after MyRepublic announced its MNO ambitions.

    Regulator IDA plans to hold an auction to select Singapore’s fourth mobile operator in the third quarter, with a reserve price of around S$35 million. A dedicated auction for the potential new market entrants will be held ahead of a general auction open to all takers.

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  • DHL, UPS Bid for South Korea’s Logen Logistics

    DHL, UPS Bid for South Korea’s Logen Logistics

    Deutsche Post DHL Group and UPS are reportedly among the companies which have submitted preliminary offers for South Korean package delivery firm Logen Logistics.

    According to a report today, Affinity Equity Partners, CVC Capital Partners and STIC Investment were also among the bidders.

    Logen is currently wholly owned by Hong Kong-based Baring Private Equity Asia, which bought the delivery specialist from Mirae Asset Private Equity in 2013.

    Logen is reported to be the fourth largest courier services company in South Korea – behind CJ Korea Express, Hyundai Logistics and Hanjin Transportation.

    Global logistics companies UPS and DHL are eying Logen amid burgeoning e-commerce and online shopping in Korea and as part of expansion to the Asian market.

    Private equity firms also believe the logistics business is lucrative investment.

    Moreover, Logen is a solid company with a loyal client base and growing earnings.

    Unlike other parcel delivery service companies, Logen is based on the customer to customer (C2C) business that connects deals between merchants and consumers.

    Logen last year bought a 70 percent stake in KGB Logis Co. for 25.0 billion won, making it the industry’s fourth with a combined market share of over 10 percent.

    Logen recorded 20.7 billion won in operating profit on sales of 263.5 billion won last year.

    The combined earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization of the Logen and KGB Logis are estimated at 40 billion won for this year, up from last year’s around 30 billion won.

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