Carris rejects Elliott's £700m takeover bid

Currys has officially rejected a £700 million takeover bid from activist investor Elliott Advisors. Photo: TONY SMITH/ALAMY

Currys has formally rejected a takeover bid from Elliott Advisors. The £700 million takeover bid came from activist investor Elliott Advisors, which said it «significantly undervalued» the company.

Elliott, a US firm, offered 62 pence per share for the company, which would be 32 pence % more than last year. current share price of the electrical goods network. The shares closed at 47.08 pence at the end of last week.

Currys, the London-listed retailer which has absorbed Dixons, PC World and Carphone Warehouse, has 300 stores in the UK and employs more than 15,000 people but stores in eight countries.

Currys' board confirmed on Saturday he received an «unsolicited, preliminary and conditional offer» from Elliott.

However, after reviewing the proposal with the help of its financial advisers, the board issued a statement saying the proposal «significantly undervalued the company and its future prospects.» As a result, Elliott's offer was unanimously rejected.

The board further stated that there could be «no certainty» that an offer would be made for Curry and that it did not know the terms under which an offer might be made

Under the City's Takeover and Merger Code, Elliott must either announce a firm intention to make an offer for Currys by 5:00 pm on March 16, or announce that it does not intend to make an offer.

The Currys share price has been on a slow decline over the past three years. Photo: William Barton/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy

Elliott bought bookshop Waterstones in 2018 and also has a stake in Foyles. The firm was believed to be considering a £500m bid for clothing store Reiss last year and was financially backing lender Bantry Bay, which provided Matalan with a £60m financing deal. It also provided loans to Asos and Superdry.

Last year the firm was involved in an auction to buy The Body Shop, which has now gone into administration, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.

The share price of Currys, a member of the FTSE-250 index, has fallen slowly over the past three years, facing the same economic headwinds as other retailers.

Last month the company reported a fall in sales over the Christmas period. but the company said its profit outlook had improved due to a number of cost-cutting measures it had taken.

In a statement, Alex Baldock, group chief executive, said the group was seeing «encouraging momentum» in the UK and Ireland. as well as growth in sales of services that “increase profits.”

Founded by Paul Singer in 1977, Elliott has a reputation as an activist investor and has made its presence known in UK boardrooms. In 2018, Elliott acquired a stake in shopping center owner Hammerson and increased its stake to put pressure on the board to speed up asset sales and change management.

An agreement was reached between them that included a shake-up on the Hammerson board.

That same year, Elliott became the largest shareholder in Whitbread, which owns Premier Inn, and urged it to spin off Costa Coffee. Whitbread sold it to Coca-Cola a year later.

The company also took a multimillion-dollar stake in pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2021 and was reportedly trying to get its chief executive Dame Emma Walmsley to reapply. for her job after «years of disappointing performance».

News of Elliott's interest in Curry was first reported by Sky News on Saturday.