Unieuro, the board splits over the price of the Fnac Darty Opas

The board of directors of Unieuro is split on the assessment of the fairness of the price offered by Fnac Darty and Ruby Equity Investment for the Opas on all of Unieuro's ordinary shares. The board, composed of 11 members, seven of whom are independent, split: for Alessandra Bucci, Pietro Caliceti, Paola Elisabetta Galbiati, Giancarlo Nicosanti Monterastelli (ceo) and Maria Bruna Olivieri (general manager), the price is too low; Daniele Pelli (independent) abstained; while Laura Cavatorta, Stefano Meloni, Alessandra Stabilini , Giuseppe Nisticò (head of distribution & logistics of Iliad Italia) and Benedetto Levi (ceo Iliad Italia) considered it congruous, although they too emphasised that 'it is at the lower end of the range of values identified and does not fully capture the company's potential'.

In particular, the board of directors, having taken note of the fairness opinion issued by the financial advisors Equita Sim and Mediobanca Banca di Credito Finanziario, did not reach a majority on the fairness assessment, considering that five directors considered the consideration to be unfair, five considered it congruous, and one director abstained.

The advisors, for their part, with the application of partly different valuation methodologies, had considered the offer price to be congruous from a financial point of view, i.e. EUR 9 and 0.1 newly issued ordinary shares of Fnac Darty listed on Euronext Paris for each Unieuro share contributed to the offer.

At Piazza Affari, Unieuro's share price is trading slightly below the value of the offer, which is around EUR 12 between cash and the bidder's shares. Since the beginning of the year it has gained over 12% thanks to the jump at the launch of the offer in mid-July.

The company's press release also states that the board has, this time unanimously, found some critical aspects with reference to the information provided by the bidders on the reasons for the offer, future plans and any extraordinary transactions subsequent to the offer itself, compared with the strategic objectives initiated and pursued by the Unieuro group and communicated to the market.