Sears to bid $269 million for Restoration Hardware

A regulatory filing by Sears Holdings has proposed paying $6.75 a share or a total of $269 million to buy furnishings retailer Restoration Hardware. The offer was made in a letter to Restoration on Friday 23 November, which Sears included in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on Monday. (Also see: Sears takes a 13.7 per cent stake in DIY company Restoration Hardware)

The offer tops a management-led buyout valued at $6.70 a share or $267 million that Restoration agreed to earlier this month. Sears Holdings operates the Kmart and Sears, Roebuck chains.

The proposed $6.75-a-share offer was based solely on publicly available information after the Restoration management refused to release proprietary information, Sears''s executive vice president William C. Crowley has said in the letter. Meanwhile, Restoration is soliciting competing proposals from third parties during a 35-day period that ends on 13 December.