Dutch group bids for Vision Express parent

If it goes ahead, the deal Ð which values GrandVision at E600m Ð will allow the Paris-based optical company to go private at the second attempt in six months.
It was Hal that blocked the bid by private equity fund PAI last year, approved by the founders, after it built up its shares in GrandVision from 10 per cent to nearly 33 per cent.
The latest bid is a cash offer worth E25.5 per share, and is being made by a new jointly held company, Multibrands, understood to be 63 per cent owned by Hal and 36 per cent by GrandVision's founding shareholders.
Elie Vannier, GrandVision's chief operating officer, said the founding shareholders approached Hal after its failed buy-out attempt to look at the possibility of buying the Dutch group's stake but were refused, reported The Financial Times (February 4).
'We decided we could not just sit there with a shareholder having 33 per cent of our company, gaining creeping control without making a fully valued offer to shareholders,' he told the financial newspaper. 'So we talked and found we had a lot in common.'
Last week Luxottica announced that it was to take over the US optical group Cole National. It is reported that Hal has a 21 per cent stake in Cole National.Vision Express' French parent company GrandVision is expected to be taken over by Dutch investment fund Hal Trusts, the group which holds retail optician interests in Germany, Holland and Italy.
If it goes ahead, the deal Ð which values GrandVision at E600m Ð will allow the Paris-based optical company to go private at the second attempt in six months.
It was Hal that blocked the bid by private equity fund PAI last year, approved by the founders, after it built up its shares in GrandVision from 10 per cent to nearly 33 per cent.
The latest bid is a cash offer worth E25.5 per share, and is being made by a new jointly held company, Multibrands, understood to be 63 per cent owned by Hal and 36 per cent by GrandVision's founding shareholders.
Elie Vannier, GrandVision's chief operating officer, said the founding shareholders approached Hal after its failed buy-out attempt to look at the possibility of buying the Dutch group's stake but were refused, reported The Financial Times (February 4).
'We decided we could not just sit there with a shareholder having 33 per cent of our company, gaining creeping control without making a fully valued offer to shareholders,' he told the financial newspaper. 'So we talked and found we had a lot in common.'
Last week Luxottica announced that it was to take over the US optical group Cole National. It is reported that Hal has a 21 per cent stake in Cole National.Vision Express' French parent company GrandVision is expected to be taken over by Dutch investment fund Hal Trusts, the group which holds retail optician interests in Germany, Holland and Italy.
If it goes ahead, the deal Ð which values GrandVision at E600m Ð will allow the Paris-based optical company to go private at the second attempt in six months.
It was Hal that blocked the bid by private equity fund PAI last year, approved by the founders, after it built up its shares in GrandVision from 10 per cent to nearly 33 per cent.
The latest bid is a cash offer worth E25.5 per share, and is being made by a new jointly held company, Multibrands, understood to be 63 per cent owned by Hal and 36 per cent by GrandVision's founding shareholders.
Elie Vannier, GrandVision's chief operating officer, said the founding shareholders approached Hal after its failed buy-out attempt to look at the possibility of buying the Dutch group's stake but were refused, reported The Financial Times (February 4).
'We decided we could not just sit there with a shareholder having 33 per cent of our company, gaining creeping control without making a fully valued offer to shareholders,' he told the financial newspaper. 'So we talked and found we had a lot in common.'
Last week Luxottica announced that it was to take over the US optical group Cole National. It is reported that Hal has a 21 per cent stake in Cole National.