L’Occitane confirms owner contemplating possible deal to take it private (updated)
11/08/2023 16:03
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Aug 11 (Reuters) - Hong Kong-listed L'Occitane
International SA 0973.HK confirmed on Friday that its
controlling shareholder is contemplating a potential deal to
take the skincare company private, but said no definitive
agreement has gone through in this regard.
The Luxembourg- and Geneva-headquartered firm, however, said
the speculated price contained in the media reports of about
HK$35 for each L'Occitane share is "false and without basis".
The company said if a deal were to go through, the potential
offer price would be no less than HK$26.00 per share.
"Nevertheless, the controlling shareholder is still
considering its options, including the option of not pursing any
transaction at all, depending on market conditions and pending a
feasible financing and structure option," the company said in an
exchange filing.
Shares in the Luxembourg- and Geneva-headquartered firm
were halted after Bloomberg News reported that billionaire
Chairman Reinold Geiger was in advanced talks to take L'Occitane
International private, valuing the firm at around $6.5 billion.
Geiger has been speaking to advisers about the
possibility of relisting the skincare products group on a
European exchange as soon as next year,
sources
had told Reuters.
In May-end, Geiger's investment holding company,
L'Occitane Groupe SA, owned 72.7% of the skincare firm.
The company has made an application to the stock
exchange for the resumption of trading in shares due to take
effect on Aug. 14, it said.
(Reporting by Roushni Nair and Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru;
Editing by Pooja Desai)
((Roushni.Nair@thomsonreuters.com;))