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Argos snubs hostile bidder
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April 8, 1998: 6:50 a.m. ET
The British catalogue retailer calls GUS's $3.2B bid "totally inadequate"
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - British-based catalogue retailer Argos Plc has rejected a sweetened $3.2 billion hostile takeover bid by Great Universal Stores Plc Wednesday, calling the offer "totally inadequate" and saying it would like to shop around a little more.
GUS' new bid was made early Wednesday. Argos announced it was slapping it down just a few hours later.
In February GUS, a London-based holding company with interests in home shopping, overseas retailing, information services and property investment, offered to pay $2.66 billion, or $9.70 a share, for Argos.
Argos rejected that bid and struck back with a new trading strategy and a shareholder buy-back plan valued at $717.6 million.
GUS' Wednesday offer was about $1.30 per share more than its original offer.
Takeover conflicts are not new for Great Universal Stores. In mid-March, American Business Information Inc. sued to block GUS's proposed $831 million acquisition of Metromail, a U.S.-based marketing information company.
ABI claimed the agreement leapfrogged over interested buyers and shortchanged shareholders. Despite the suit, GUS eventually emerged from the takeover fight triumphant.
GUS chairman Lord Wolfson cast the new Argos offer Wednesday in black-and-white financial terms.
"Argos shareholders have a very simple choice: the certainty of GUS's cash offer or all the risks of what will happen to Argos's share price if GUS's offer lapses," Wolfson said in a statement.
GUS said the new offer was final and would stand until noon on April 24.
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Great Universal Stores
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