Door closing on Darty bid party as Steinhoff refuses to raise bid

Steinhoff International's Conforama said it would not increase its offer for Darty from its recent offer of 160p, which could leave the door open to bidding rival Fnac in the battle for the France-focused electronics retailer.

Conforama, the French furniture retailing arm of South African-controlled and Frankfurt-listed Steinhoff, announced on Wednesday morning that its third increased offer of 160p per Darty share made on 22 April was "final, and will not be increased".

This is short of the 173p final offer from Fnac, which has since upped its stake in Darty to 29.73%, ahead of Conforama's 20.4% holding of Darty shares.

Conforama chief executive Alexander Nodale said: "Our independent board and management had a clear valuation in mind for the standalone Darty business.

"Our final offer of 160 pence for each Darty share reflects the evaluation criteria we use for all acquisitions, including return on investment and value creation.

"We remain of the opinion that, at this price, the Darty business would have been a good addition to the Steinhoff group of businesses but, at an increased price, it would no longer create sufficient value for Steinhoff shareholders, employees and other stakeholders."

London-listed Darty, formerly known as Kesa Electricals, had agreed a takeover by Fnac in November, though the process had been slowly wading through the European Union regulatory clearance process until Steinhoff gatecrashed the party last month.

Darty had originally agreed an offer of one Fnac share for every 37 of its own, or a small partial cash alternative, which was originally worth roughly £558m but has improved as Fnac's shares have gained ground.

Backed by South African retail billionaire Christo Wiese, Steinhoff has deep enough pockets but not the stomach for what it perceives to be over-paying for acquisitions, having also pulled out of the race with Sainsbury's to buy Home Retail.