Bonomi move threatens Club Med take-private, say Ardian and Fosun

According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Strategic Holdings, an investment vehicle controlled by BI-Invest, has been building up a 6.5% stake in Club Med over the past two months, with a view to eventually control around 10% of the business.

BI-Invest is the Luxembourg-based family office of Andrea Bonomi, who founded Italian private equity house Investindustrial and serves as its senior principal. Investindustrial appears as the private equity arm of BI-Invest on the latter's website, while Strategic Holdings is dedicated to investments in public companies.

Strategic Holdings has reportedly been building up its Club Med stake at the current share price of circa €18.9; this is higher than the €17.5 per share offered by Ardian and Fosun via their joint vehicle, Gaillon Invest, as part of their takeover bid.

This, combined with the fact that a 10% stake in Club Med would put BI-Invest on an equal footing with Ardian and Fosun, which currently own 8.9% and 9.5% of Club Med respectively, prompted the duo to issue a warning to other shareholders.

In a press release issued on 11 May, Ardian and Fosun stated that the price paid by BI-Invest did not represent a realistic exit strategy for current shareholders since it only applies to a limited number of shares. Ardian and Fosun went as far as to threaten to take their takeover offer off the table and reconsider their positions in Club Med's shareholding, should "the behaviour of Strategic Holdings and a few speculative funds" prevent them to reach the 50.1% threshold necessary for their take-private bid to be successful.

Ardian and Fosun have suffered a series of setbacks in their planned take-private of Club Med. The duo initially planned on offering €17 per share to Club Med shareholders back in May last year. They later revised their bid to €17.5, an offer welcomed by the company's board at the end of June 2013. The offer would value the company at around €557m.

However, two minority shareholder groups appealed the regulator's decision to authorise Club Med's takeover in July 2013. The ensuing legal battle halted the takeover process for several months. Earlier this month, Paris's appeal court rejected the minority shareholders' claims, effectively greenlighting Ardian and Fosun's take-private bid.

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• Topics
• France
• Southern Europe
• Buyouts
• Consumer
• Ardian (formerly Axa PE)
• Investindustrial
• Take Private