ScS agrees takeover by Italian rival in near £100m deal
Poltronesofa will add the 100 UK stores to its existing 300-strong chain across Europe.
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Your support makes all the difference.Sofa chain ScS is set to be taken private after agreeing a near £100 million takeover by an Italian furniture retailer.
Under the deal, Italy’s Poltronesofa will pay 280p a share, including a 10p dividend, valuing ScS at £99.4 million and marking a 66% premium on Monday’s closing price.
It sees Poltronesofa enter the UK market for the first time, adding to its existing European operations across Italy, where it has 167 stores; France; Belgium; Switzerland; Cyprus and Malta.
The group has around 300 shops in total across Europe.
ScS has 100 outlets in the UK and a website offering, as well as the recently bought Snug brand.
The acquisition represents the best opportunity for Poltronesofa to enter the United Kingdom market of upholstery products
Alan Smith, non-executive chair of ScS, said: “Poltronesofa, based in Italy, is a pan-European sofa retailer that has been successfully pursuing international expansion and ScS, with UK operations, is the next juncture of that strategy.
“The ScS board believes Poltronesofa will bring significant benefits to ScS through its broad industry expertise in addition to providing the necessary capital that would accelerate our current strategy, albeit in a private rather than public sphere.”
Poltronesofa said the deal fits in with its aims to continue growing across Europe.
Chief executive Renzo Ricci said: “As the next step of Poltronesofa’s pan-European expansion, the acquisition represents the best opportunity for Poltronesofa to enter the United Kingdom market of upholstery products.”
He added it will help ScS “realise its full growth potential”.