In a bullish move in the struggling retail industry, Sycamore Partners has agreed to acquire Staples (NASDAQ: SPLS) at an equity value of about $6.9 billion. The retail- and consumer-focused firm will pay $10.25 per share in cash for the office-supply chain, marking a roughly 20% premium to the company’s 10-day weighted average stock price prior to the first reports of a possible deal in April. Staples shares closed Wednesday up more than 8%.
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The news comes not long after Staples rejected a reported $5.8 billion bid from Cerberus Capital Management in late May and more than a year after the company initially began looking for buyers after it failed to get US regulatory approval for a proposed $6.3 billion takeover of rival Office Depot.
Assuming no setbacks, the deal would mark the second-biggest announced LBO in the US this year, per the PitchBook Platform, trailing only the $7.5 billion take-private buyout of Panera announced by JAB and BDT Capital Partners in April. The deal comes during a year in which PE activity in the US retail sector is on pace for a dramatic decline, with just 30 deals so far this year after 106 transactions in 2016.
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Article by PitchBook
