Bonomi stock purchase upsets Club Med bid
A holding company controlled by Italy’s wealthy Bonomi family has increased its stake in Club Méditerranée in an attempt to derail the French holiday group’s efforts to go private in a deal due to close on Friday.
Through its fund Strategic Holdings, the Bonomi family on Monday became Club Med’s biggest shareholder after buying more than 400,000 shares at €18.96 each, according to a filing to France’s stock market authority.
The fund, represented by Andrea Bonomi, said it intended to buy more shares and had the means to lift its stake as high as 29 per cent.
The price was substantially more than the €17.50-per-share offer for Club Med made last year by Ardian, the French private equity fund, and China’s Fosun International, and poses doubts about their ability to complete their intended €557m deal.
Fosun owns 9.96 per cent of the French company, while Ardian, formerly Axa Private Equity, holds 9.4 per cent. Under the terms of the proposed deal, Ardian and Fosun would each have 46 per cent of a holding company, while Club Med’s management would have the remaining 8 per cent.
The latest twist in Club Med’s saga comes only a week after the Benetton family said that it would withdraw support for the tender offer on the grounds that the share price was now higher than the offer price. Ardian and Fosun need to have a majority of the shares tendered.
Colette Neuville, who heads the French minority shareholders’ group Adam, said she thought Ardian and Fosun’s attempt, with the group’s management, to take Club Med private was likely to fail.
“With the share price where it is, one can now imagine a better offer,” she told the FT. Ms Neuville and her shareholder activist group opposed last year’s offer from the outset, insisting that it undervalued the company and lacked transparency.
Those complaints tied up the attempted takeover for almost a year until a Paris court finally dismissed the complaints in a ruling last month.
Mr Bonomi’s position-building in Club Med in recent months through Strategic Holdings has driven the shares to a five-year high. On Tuesday, the shares were up 0.7 per cent to €19.10.
The Bonomi family are not seeking to take control of Club Med at this point. However, the family said it might consider bidding for the company through its private equity group, Investindustrial, if the Ardian-led offer fails.
Club Med could not immediately comment. Ardian declined to comment.
Club Med, founded in 1950, was a pioneer of the all-inclusive holiday resort, but ran into trouble in the late 1990s as fierce competition mounted. It has been struggling to reinvent itself ever since.