EUROPE
French laundry services group Elis has improved its offer to buy UK laundry and workwear company Berendsen and the companies said they had agreed in principle on key terms. The offer was raised for a second time to £2.2bn, in spite of earlier comments made by the Berendsen's board that there had been no "basis for any further discussions".
The new offer would value Berendsen at £12.50 per share excluding an interim dividend, at a premium of 45% to its uninterrupted share price, and ahead of the previous offers of £11.73 a share and £11.00 a share tabled in late April and May.
A joint statement issued on Wednesday 7 June, said: “The Boards of Elis and Berendsen are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement in principle on the key terms of a possible recommended offer to be made by Elis for Berendsen, which would create a strong Pan-European leader in textile, hygiene and facility services. The transaction would be implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement in relation to the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Berendsen (the “Possible Offer”), which the Board of Berendsen expects to recommend unanimously.”
Berendsen last month rejected a revised, £2 billion pound offer by Elis, saying it did not reflect value being added by a planned expansion. The company had described the earlier bids as "highly opportunistic” and “very significantly undervaluing” the business, and the board had said it "did not see the basis for any further discussions with Elis”.
