Sports Direct could offer 5p a share for Debenhams

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 27, 2019

The daily Debenhams news flow is continuing. The latest development is that Sports Direct is still considering making an offer for the company and it has put a price on its interest this time too. 

The company on Wednesday confirmed that it is “considering making a firm offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Debenhams not already held by Sports Direct” and that it has told Debenhams its terms.

It would offer 5p in cash per ordinary share, which “would value the total currently issued share capital of Debenhams (excluding treasury shares) at approximately £61.4 million.”

The possible offer “if made, would represent a premium of approximately 127% to the closing price of Debenhams shares on 26 March.” And the company said that “Sports Direct would also assist Debenhams in addressing its immediate funding requirements,” subject to certain pre-conditions.
Those pre-conditions include Mike Ashley immediately being named as the department store chain’s CEO and the company “terminating the noteholder consent solicitation process it announced on 22 March,” which means ending the funding talks it’s currently taking part in.

The possible offer is also “pre-conditional upon the Debenhams group agreeing not to enter into any third party funding arrangements, granting any new security over any of its assets or entering into any administration, CVA or other insolvency process. Each of these pre-conditions must be satisfied or waived before any firm offer can be made.”

It said it thinks it terms “would offer fair and full value for Debenhams” and doesn’t believe that the retailer “has the same value if it is (in effect) handed over to Debenhams' existing lender group. As such, Sports Direct would expect the possible offer to be attractive to Debenhams shareholders and other stakeholders as an alternative to Debenhams' current restructuring and refinancing process.”