Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) has retained TD Securities to prepare a formal valuation of its common shares following a proposal from a group of HBC stakeholders to take the company private last month.
The retailer has also taken on Centerview Partners as special advisor.
The move comes a month after the retailer’s board formed a special committee to review and evaluate the proposal for the privatisation of the company at a price of CAD9.45 per share, payable in cash.
The group submitting the proposal are all linked to Richard Baker, governor and executive chairman of HBC, Rhône Capital, WeWork Property Advisors, Hanover Investments (Luxembourg), and Abrams Capital Management – and collectively own about 57% of the outstanding common shares of HBC.
However, activist investor Land & Buildings Investment Management criticised the offer as “woefully inadequate,” with founder and CIO Jonathan Litt saying it “materially undervalues the exceptional assets the company owns.”
Now HBC says the special committee has also retained JP Morgan Securities as financial advisor and Blake, Cassels & Graydon as legal counsel to assist in the process.
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By GlobalData“The committee acknowledges shareholders’ feedback expressing their perspectives about the proposed privatisation transaction,” HBC says in a statement, adding it “intends to review the transaction proposal carefully with the assistance of its legal and financial advisors and the benefit of the independent valuation.”
In its most recent first-quarter earnings release, HBC CEO Helena Foulkes hailed progress on a “number of crucial fronts” despite a drop in first-quarter sales.
