The company’s bonds fell by more than 57 percent in the Continuous Market, after an international industrial investor made a non-binding offer to purchase the group’s debts.
The as-yet-anonymous investor is seeking to acquire the debt for capitalisation, reports Bolsamania, and is anticipating a “significant” dilution for current shareholders.
They have presented the offer to BBVA, Banco Sabadell, CaixaBank, Banco Santander, Banco Popular, Bankia, and Kutxbank, who are asking ADVEO to provide all necessary information to perform a ‘due diligence’ test, preceding a binding offer.
The group’s debt is currently stood at €149.2 million ($172.6 million).
Bolsamania further reports that the capitalisation “would be subject to the regime of waiver of obligation to make a public takeover bid, provided for in the decree on the regime of public takeover bids.”
As a result, ADVEO’s Board of Directors has decided to accept the initial requests from the offeror, “in the best interests of the company.”
The proposed move to remove ADVEO’s debt would, according to the supplier itself, definitively resolve its “structural debt problem”, and would help “build a multi-channel leader group in Europe in the space of the solutions for the work environment in line with our declared strategy.”
ADVEO’s Board and Management team has reaffirmed it will continue working “in the best interest of the company and its shareholders”, and will relay any new developments as they happen. It has also begun a process to obtain additional long-term financing, which will allow it “to return to its normal levels of availability.”
UPDATE: This morning, PBS reports surfaced suggesting that ADVEO’s mystery purchaser is Netherlands-based Staples Solutions, which was sold by office supplier Staples to Cerberus in 2017.
