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Reuters
Published
May 1, 2012
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Pionieer Pekao to accept sweeteened bid for EM&F

By
Reuters
Published
May 1, 2012

WARSAW - Pionieer Pekao, the second largest financial shareholder of Polish retailer EM&F , said it will accept a sweetened bid for the EM&F from Penta Investments and Eastbridge, the fund said in a statement on Monday.

"NFI Empik (EM&F) is still an important part of our portfolio and taking into account a limited liquidity of the company, low management quality and corporate governance risk we want to take an advantage from the opportunity," the statement said.

Last week, Czech private equity group Penta Investments and Eastbridge fund raised their joint bid for Empik Media & Fashion, valuing the group at nearly 1.1 billion zlotys.

EM&F operates about 750 stores in central and eastern Europe and opened Poland's first GAP outlet a few months ago.

Its holdings also include Poland's leading chain of toy stores, Smyk, as well as book and newspaper retailer Empik, recently hit by weaker sales in clothes and cosmetics.

It also faces a challenge on its home turf from toy retailer Toys R Us, which opened its first Polish stores last year, and an expected entry from Internet giant Amazon.com .

Pionieer Pekao holds a 6.4 percent stake in EM&F.

Pension fund ING, which holds nearly 6.0 percent of the company, declined to comment on the issue.

Shares of EM&F rose more than 8 percent at 1300 GMT. (Reporting by Maciej Onoszko, writing by Dagmara Leszkowicz; Editing by Erica Billingham)

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