Following the withdrawal of its proposal to acquire equity in the firm that it did not already hold, British retailer Frasers stated on Tuesday that it will make a required offer for Norwegian sporting goods retailer XXL ASA.
In exchange for the group’s guarantee in the transaction, Frasers Group has been granted 21.6 million A-shares in XXL ASA’s fully underwritten rights offering, along with an extra 777,289 A-shares, according to XXL.
Frasers now owns roughly 40.8 per cent of the voting A-shares and 32.9 per cent of all shares after the revised allocation. As a result, Frasers Group will exceed the one-third ownership threshold outlined in Norwegian securities law, necessitating a mandatory offer for the remaining shares.
Frasers, which previously held a 25.8 per cent stake in XXL, submitted a bid in December but discontinued it two months later, stating some of XXL’s other big owners would not accept the offer.
XXL ASA is a Norwegian sporting goods retailer with brick and mortar stores and online stores in the Nordics and Austria. XXL is the largest and fastest growing sports retailer by revenue in the Nordic region. XXL’s headquarter is located in Oslo, Norway.
