Kretinsky Wants to Launch a Takeover Bid on Fnac Darty
Fnac Darty said it has received an offer from EP Group, a company controlled by Daniel Kretinsky, proposing the launch of a public tender offer for its shares.
The offer values Fnac Darty at €36 per share, 19.01% above Friday's closing price. It also covers all of the company's OCEANEs, at €81.09 each. EP Group already holds 28.5% of Fnac Darty's share capital and voting rights via its subsidiary Vesa Equity Investment.
EP Group also said it does not intend to seek the implementation of a squeeze-out procedure at the end of the offer, and that the offer is not subject to any success threshold other than reaching the mandatory lapse threshold of over 50% of the share capital or voting rights.
In addition, the bidder plans to pursue Fnac Darty's main strategic directions, keep the current management team and leave the dividend policy unchanged. However, it aims, quite logically, to change the composition of the Board of Directors to reflect the potential future shareholder structure.
Accordingly, Fnac Darty's Board of Directors welcomed the proposed transaction.
Alongside this, Fnac Darty unveiled its unaudited preliminary results.
The company reported a fall in sales in December - particularly at its stores. Group revenue at end-2025 is expected to be stable LFL at €10.33bn, while current operating income should edge up to €203.1m, from €189m a year ago.
Meanwhile, its current operating margin is expected to improve by around 5 basis points.
Audited annual results will be published after trading on February 25.
Fnac Darty is No. 1 in France for distribution of cultural and leisure products. The group's activity is organized into 4 divisions:
- distribution of cultural and IT products and consumer electronics: books, toys, gaming consoles, music CDs, telephones, IT products (computers, tablets, peripherals, software, etc.), hi-fi products (televisions, stereo systems, DVD readers and recorders), cameras and video recorders, MP3 players, DVD films, household appliances, etc. The company operates through a network of stores (owned nearly 1,484 points of sale as of the end of 2025 worldwide) and via the Internet;
- sales of photo developing services;
- distribution of event tickets: concerts, theater productions, operas, expositions, circuses, museums, etc.;
- travel sales (Fnac Voyages).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: France (58.7%), Italy (25%), Belgium (6.1%), Portugal (5.2%), Spain (2.9%) and Switzerland (2.1%).
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