E-commerce group joins Currys takeover battle
Chinese e-commerce group JD.com has joined investment firm Elliott Advisors in a potential battle to takeover British retailer Currys.
JD.com confirmed that it is in the preliminary stages of evaluating a possible cash offer for the entire share capital of the electronics retailer.
However, the group said there can be no certainty that an offer will be made.
This comes after Currys confirmed that it had received an unsolicited, preliminary, and conditional proposal from Waterstones owner Elliott Advisors which valued the retailer at £700m. However, Currys said it believed the offer to be too low and rejected the proposal.
In accordance with the London Stock Market code, Elliott Advisors must either announce whether it intends to make an offer for Currys by 16 March.
Last month, Currys said that sales had declined 3% over the key Christmas period, but had increased its profit forecast for the year due to higher cost-saving measures and profit margins.
On Monday morning, the retailer’s share price shot up to almost 64p, valuing the business at around £723m.