Club Méditerranée, Paris, may be set for a hostile takeover after a buyout offer from two of its top shareholders, Fosun International and Ardian (formerly AXA Private Equity) has been withdrawn.
Fosun and Ardian had offered €17.50 (US$23.95) per share, for a total of €556 million (US$761 million), in their May 2013 offer for Club Med. The companies’ investment vehicle Gaillon Invest will ask the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) to withdraw the offer. The move comes after the AMF approved Global Resorts’s hostile takeover bid of €21 (US$28.74) per share.
Italian investor Andrea Bonomi’s Investindustrial controls 90% of Global Resorts, while the remainder is held by Sol Kerzner, PortAventura and GP Investments.
Through investment vehicles Bonomi is currently Club Med’s largest shareholder at 10%. Bonomi has criticized Fosun and AXA Private Equity’s strategy of reorienting the company away from the European consumer to the Chinese consumer, instead proposing additional investments of €150 million (US$205 million) to take advantage of tourism growth in Europe and Latin America.
HOTELS 325 data shows that at the end of 2013 Club Med had 66 properties totaling 19.804 guestrooms in operation.