Frasers Group to make another bid for Norway’s XXL ASA

Frasers Group is once again pursuing XXL ASA. The company issued a statement via the Oslo Stock Exchange to confirm that it was to make a mandatory offer for the remaining shares of the Norwegian sportswear retailer.

As part of a fully underwritten rights issue announced by XXL in January, Frasers will be granted just under 28.8 million A-shares, corresponding to around 32.9 percent of all shares in the company, and approximately 40.8 percent of the voting A-shares.

This will put Frasers across the one third threshold, triggering an obligation to make a bid for the remaining shares in the company that it does not yet own.

The news comes weeks after Frasers had said it would no longer proceed with its intended offer for XXL after a number of large shareholders made it known that they would refuse to accept the offer if it was made.

This meant that the condition requiring a sufficient number of shareholders to back Frasers in its pursuit of snapping up more than 50 percent of XXL’s shares would not be fulfilled.

Prior to the rights issue, the Sports Direct owner held 25.8 percent of XXL’s share capital, and had initially sought to acquire the company’s remaining shares at a price of NOK 10 per share, amounting to around 17 million pounds.

It made an attempt to takeover XXL after the firm proposed an alternative transaction structure that Frasers deemed to be “wrong”. The group questioned the legality of the plan, and called its possible implementation “detrimental to both Frasers and other minority shareholders”.