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British electronics retailer Currys has rejected an unsolicited offer from US investment group Elliott Management, saying it significantly undervalued the company.
The company said on Saturday afternoon that its board had on Friday unanimously rejected a proposal of 62 pence per share – a premium of around 32% to its last price, valuing the company at around £700 million.
Elliott management said on Saturday it was considering making a cash offer for Currys.
Elliott said there was no certainty he would bid for Currys. Under UK takeover rules, he has until March 16 to make a final offer or walk away.
Currys said there can be no certainty that an offer will be made, nor what terms it might involve. His shares, which have fallen 36% over the past year, traded almost unchanged to close on Friday at around 47 pence a share.
Currys, which has a market capitalization of more than half a billion pounds, would mark a significant target for Elliott. He already owns a sizeable private equity portfolio that includes British bookshop Waterstones and a controlling stake in food chain Wasabi.
The electronics retailer has a strong market position in the UK and the Nordic region. In November it agreed to sell its Greek operations in a £175 million deal that is expected to strengthen its balance sheet.
Chief executive Alex Baldock, who joined the group in 2018, has led the revamp of the chain, which sells televisions, laptops and other electrical items online and through 815 stores in eight countries.
It closed all 531 Carphone Warehouse stores it owned in the UK during the pandemic, with the loss of 2,900 jobs, in a bid to make its struggling mobile phone business profitable.
The US investor Elliott manages assets of around $65 billion and invests in public and private markets. The hedge fund and private equity group is known for taking an activist approach to investing, engaging in boardroom battles to influence the future direction of companies in which it holds a stake.
Elliott has had an active start to the year. Earlier this month it asked Japanese real estate group Mitsui Fudosan to buy back 1 trillion yen ($6.7 billion) in shares and for the company to sell its stake in Tokyo Disneyland operating company Oriental Land, in a move first reported by the Financial Times.
Sky News first reported Elliott’s interest on Saturday.