Daniel Kretinsky succeeds with his takeover bid: Czech billionaire now holds 69% of Fnac‑Darty

Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has succeeded in taking majority control of electronic equipment and cultural products specialist Fnac Darty by acquiring 69% of its capital, the Financial Markets Authority announced on Tuesday. The condition of holding 50% of the capital or voting rights to succeed in the takeover bid "is thus satisfied", adds the AMF, policeman of the Paris Stock Exchange. In October, the European Commission validated the takeover project launched in January, the final authorization expected for this operation.

Daniel Kretinsky is already the main shareholder of Fnac Darty, with 28.5% of the capital, and intends to cross the 50% threshold with this takeover bid, de facto preventing the Chinese online commerce giant JD. com to gain more say in company decisions. No withdrawal from the Paris Stock Exchange JD.

com is in fact in the process of acquiring the German distributor Ceconomy, which itself holds more than 20% of the capital of Fnac Darty, which indirectly gives the Chinese group the place of second shareholder within the French company. However, the European Commission opened an in-depth investigation into JD's takeover offer in May. com, suspected of being supported by Chinese public subsidies.

China then called this action “inappropriate measures of extraterritorial jurisdiction”. EP Group's takeover bid will not result in the withdrawal of Fnac Darty from the Paris Stock Exchange. The AMF gave the green light in May, and the Board of Directors of Fnac Darty also issued a favorable opinion.

Machine-translated from French