The Ted Baker acquisition process is still ongoing and the British retailer announced Monday that it has selected a preferred candidate. But it has not said who it is.
However, we know that private equity group Sycamore, which initiated the bidding with several unsolicited bids a few months ago, is not going to win the award.
Ted Baker has stated that «the board confirms that Sycamore Partners Management LP is no longer participating in the formal sale process.»
Sycamore had offered around £250 million (€294.44 million) for the company earlier this year and clearly hoped to acquire Ted Baker at a low price. At the time, its shares were trading at less than 90 pence each, which reduced its market value and made the £250 million offer look theoretically attractive. But it was not attractive enough for Ted Baker’s board, which rejected Sycamore’s bids on the grounds that the company was undervalued.
The shares opened at around 143 pence on Monday, valuing them at almost £265 million (€312.11 million), which was still well below the lofty valuation it had at the end of 2015, when the shares were priced at 20 times their current price.
«On April 27, 2022, the company announced that it had received a number of non-binding proposals from potentially interested parties and that it was inviting a focused selection of such parties to enter into a due diligence process. As part of this process, the company has now received a number of revised non-binding proposals,» Ted Baker said in an update statement sent to the London Stock Exchange on Monday.
«Following review of these proposals, the board of directors has selected a preferred counterparty to undertake a confirmatory due diligence process. This process is likely to take several weeks,» he added.
He went on to repeat that «there is no certainty that an offer will be made, or the terms on which it will be made.»
He also said that he reserves the right to «alter or terminate the process at any time and in such cases will make an announcement accordingly.»