Restoration rejects Sears Holdings bid
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
Corte Madera, Calif. — Home goods retailer Restoration Hardware has announced that it will stick with a management-led buyout proposal backed by Catterton Partners, rejecting a bid by Sears Holdings, parent of Sears and Kmart.
Restoration said an independent committee of its board found that a revised Sears Holdings bid "was not reasonably likely to result in a superior proposal." The committee cited "significant uncertainties" compared with the management-led bid.
The management-led buyout is valued at $4.50 per share, or about $175 million. Sears Holdings disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had submitted a revised bid of $4.55 per share.
Both offers are down sharply from what the parties had talked about four months ago. The board originally agreed to an offer led by management with private equity firm Catterton Partners of $6.70 per share, or about $237 million. But in January, after a decline in the home retail sector, the company said it was accepting a management-Catterton bid that was 33% lower, or $4.50 per share.
After the first Catterton bid was disclosed, Sears initially said in November it would be prepared to offer $6.75 per share. But its final offer was $4.55.
