L'Occitane's billionaire owner Geiger to take firm private in $1.8 bln deal (updated)
30/04/2024 08:14
(Adds more details, writes through)
April 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed L'Occitane
International's 0973.HK chairman and controlling shareholder,
Reinold Geiger, will take the skin-care firm private, giving it
an equity value of 6 billion euros ($6.4 billion), the company
said.
The deal will value the shares Geiger does not already own
at a maximum of HK$13.91 billion ($1.78 billion), L'Occitane
said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Monday.
Shares of L'Occitane jumped as much as 12.9% to HK$33.30,
their highest since January 2022, when the company resumed
trading on Tuesday.
The deal comes as a number of Hong Kong-listed companies,
fearing their shares are undervalued, explore take-private
options in a volatile stock market chilled by China's economic
slowdown, a lack of strong stimulus policies and geopolitical
tensions.
As part of the deal, Austrian billionaire Geiger's
investment holding company, L'Occitane Groupe, in Luxembourg
will pay HK$34 for each share not already owned, representing a
15.3% premium to the stock's last close of HK$29.50 on April 8.
The offer price represents an approximate 60.83% premium to
L'Occitane's 60-trading day average closing price of HK$21.14
per share, the holding company said in a separate statement on
Monday.
L'Occitane Groupe said the deal would allow its shareholders
to cash out due to an uncertain market climate.
The offer was also attractive due to low trading liquidity
of the company's shares, it said.
Geiger-controlled L'Occitane Groupe owned 72.39% of the
cosmetics company at March-end.
Geiger has secured irrevocable undertakings from
shareholders that own about 25.79% of the company to accept his
offer, L'Occitane Groupe said.
The investment holding firm does not intend to increase the
offer price for the deal, which comes a few months after Geiger
shelved a buyout attempt for the company.
Geiger plans to finance a part of the deal using external
debt facilities provided by Crédit Agricole Corporate and
Investment Bank, with additional financing from Blackstone Inc.
BX.N and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L'Occitane said.
Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Asset Management would provide
1.55 billion euros in financing to support the transaction, a
source told Reuters on Monday.
L'Occitane International's shares were halted on April 9.
J.P. Morgan will be the financial adviser for L'Occitane
Groupe.
Geiger had decided against a deal to take the company
private last September, causing its share price to drop.
The company said in August if a deal were to go through, the
potential offer price would be no less than HK$26.00 per share.
L'Occitane was listed in Hong Kong in 2010 and was one of
the first Western companies to sell its primary shares in the
Asian financial hub at the time.
The L'Occitane brand started as a local essential oil
business in France's Provence and now has products including
soap, creams and fragrances.
L'Occitane Groupe, headquartered in Luxembourg, owns 8
brands with more than 3,000 retail locations and 1,300 own
stores in 90 countries, its website shows.
($1 = 7.8265 Hong Kong dollars)
(Reporting by Roushni Nair and Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru and
Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Sherry
Jacob-Phillips and Shounak Dasgupta, Miral Fahmy and Louise
Heavens)
((Himanshi.Akhand@thomsonreuters.com))