Kreke family, Advent International to buy German retailer Douglas Holding for $2 bn

The Kreke family, founders of loss-making German retailer Douglas Holding AG, and private equity firm Advent International, today offered to buy the perfume-to-books retailer for €1.5 billion ($2 billion).

The takeover offer is being made by an investment vehicle Beauty Holding Three AG, where Advent owns 80 per cent stake and the Kreke family 20 per cent.

Under the terms of the offer, Beauty Holding is offering €38 per share, a premium of 9.2 per cent to Friday's closing price and 41.6 per cent over the four-week volume weighted average price of Douglas of €26.83 prior to the emergence of takeover rumors on 11 January.

Both Advent and the Kreke family said that Beauty Holding has already received acceptance of 50.5 per cent of the share capital of Douglas, but the offer is conditional on receiving 75 per cent acceptance.

Douglas CEO Henning Kreke and his family, who own 12.7 per cent stake in the company, had told shareholders in March that he would like to take Douglas private in partnership with a private equity investor.

The Oetker family, one of the richest families in Germany that owns the Dr. Oetker company and the largest shareholder in Douglas with a 25.8-per cent stake, and Erwin Mueller with 10.7 per cent, have agreed to tender their shares to the offer.