according to the "financial times deutschland" ("FTD"), the u.s. investor advent is currently fine-tuning a takeover bid for the company, which it could present as early as next week. Advent is prepared to pay 38 to 40 euros per douglas share, according to the report on tuesday, citing financial circles.
This would value the retail group, which includes the perfumeries of the same name and the ailing book chain thalia, at up to 1.6 billion euros. the takeover rumors caused the shares of the retail group to soar on the stock market on tuesday. At the start of trading, the price of douglas holding AG shares, which are listed on the mdax, rose by almost 13 percent to 38.10 euros.
According to the FTD, advent already has the largest douglas shareholder, the oetker group, on its side. advent also reached a commercial agreement with drugstore entrepreneur erwin muller. The investor would thus be as good as certain of winning the majority. Oetker holds 25.8 percent of the shares, muller 10.8 percent. The entrepreneur from ulm also has access to a further 15 percent through option transactions.
However, none of the people involved wanted to make a statement on tuesday. "no comment," was the statement from oetker when asked. "there is nothing new to report on the part of douglas holding," was the statement from the group’s hagen headquarters. miller is basically silent about his plans.
The retail group with its almost 24,000 employees has been at the center of speculation since the beginning of the year. In january, the founding family kreke made it public that it was holding talks with financial investors to increase its own stake in douglas. this is how the group should be taken off the stock market if possible. Henning kreke, who heads the group, and his father jorn, who chairs the supervisory board, together own 12.7 percent of the shares. The krekes think the group is undervalued on the stock market. In addition, they want to bring about the reorganization of the book subsidiary thalia without any major disturbances from the financial market.