Fosun raises offer for Club Med in takeover battle

Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang sweetened his bid for struggling Club Mediterranee at the last minute on Friday, trumping a €24 a share offer from Italian tycoon Andrea Bonomi in France's longest-running takeover battle.

The new €24.60 offer, made a few hours before a deadline, valued the holiday operator at €939 million. It is the eighth offer Club Med investors have been asked to evaluate since May 2013 when Guo first offered €17 a share.

France’s AMF regulator set a new deadline for Mr Bonomi’s Global Resorts vehicle to make another counterbid. A spokesman for Global Resorts said on Friday it was reviewing all its options.

The AMF has been seeking to bring the process to an end by reducing the deadline period after each bid.

It said that after January 7th, the deadline for a new bid would be seven trading days instead of 10. If the regulator feels the process has gone on too long, it still has the option to ask for final, sealed bids.

Club Med shares, suspended ahead of Friday’s announcement, rose to 25.05 euros after resuming trading, their highest since September 2008, suggesting investors expect the battle to continue. The stock is up 44 per cent this year.

Mr Guo and Mr Bonomi have been raising their bids in turn for months. Both men see turnaround potential in a business damaged by the weak economy in its core European market and by a stalled attempt to move up market.

Club Med management has consistently backed Mr Guo’s offer.

The Guo camp also said on Friday that it could consider a delisting of Club Med. Mr Bonomi is also in favour of a delisting.

Mr Guo, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of about $4.3 billion, has described Club Med as an ideal investment to tap booming Chinese demand for the kind of leisure it offers for its harried and increasingly affluent city dwellers.

Gaillon Invest II is majority controlled by Mr Guo’s Fosun conglomerate. It now comprises Fosun with a 62.6 per cent stake, Portuguese insurer Fidelidade with 20 per cent, French private equity partner Ardian with 5.8 per cent, the management of Club Med with 2.9 per cent and Chinese travel agency U-Tour with 8.7 per cent.

Reuters