Johannesburg - Integrated discount retailer Steinhoff says it has successfully finalised its $64 a share offer to buy out Mattress Firm in the US.
In August, the company said it would buy Mattress Firm for about $2.4 billion, in a deal that will vault the South African discount retailer into the US market while creating the world’s largest bedding giant. Its offer was double the prevailing trade price of the stock at the time.
The listed retailer says 25 million Mattress shares - or 67.36 percent of the stock - had been tendered when the offer expired at midnight on Tuesday, while shares representing 3.62 percent of the outstanding common stock were guaranteed to be delivered.
Steinhoff says it intends to complete the acquisition concurrently with payment for the tendered shares. All shares that could have validly been offered, but were not put up, will be converted into the right to receive $64 per share.
Once the deal is done, Mattress Firm will become a subsidiary of Steinhoff and its stock will cease trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
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The purchase would give Steinhoff a global reach while diversifying sales away from South Africa, its largest market, where the furniture and discount apparel seller is subject to currency swings with the volatile Rand. Steinhoff said it intends to finance the deal for Mattress Firm through a combination of bank and bridge loans.
Mattress Firm has more than 3,600 company-operated and franchised stores across 49 states, giving it the largest geographic footprint in the US among multi-brand mattress retailers.
It was founded in 1986.
IOL