Bryan, Garnier & Co. has successfully advised LeGuide.com in its defense against GoAdv’s unsolicited takeover bid, the first attempt of a hostile takeover on Alternext
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Paris, May 26th 2009 – Bryan, Garnier & Co, the independent pan-European investment bank focused on growth companies, today announced that it has successfully advised LeGuide.com in its defense against GoAdv’s unsolicited takeover bid, the first attempt of a hostile takeover on Alternext.
LeGuide.com is the 2nd publisher of online shopping guides in Europe and the No. 1 French independent player in France. LeGuide.com’s success lies in the range of its offers, the high quality of its services and its assistance to its users and e-merchants. LeGuide.com has been able to generate strong growth and high profitability thanks to its clear positioning as a shopping guide, developed for over 10 years, and the added value which it brings to its 2,000 Europeane-merchant clients.
LeGuide.com has been the target of an unsolicited takeover offer from GoAdv, a European independent online media company. This hostile offer, the first one on Alternext, has failed, GoAdv obtaining only 0.72% of LeGuide’s shares pursuant to the tender offer, one of the lowest success rates for a public offer in France.
As a reminder, GoAdv proposed a mixed cash/shares offer (roughly half of the shares in stock and half in cash). The offer opened on March 23rd until April 21st, settlement taking place on May 18th.
Virginie Lazès, Head of Corporate Finance at Bryan, Garnier & Co. and lead on the defense commented: “LeGuide.com is one of the most successful and fastest growing internet companies in Europe. The company has a pioneering vision of the shopping guides sector, demonstrating for several years its ability to achieve a significant and highly profitable growth. Preserving this pure business model from GoAdv’s hostile takeover bid was obvious for us, the contemplated project representing no complements between the business models, nor any synergies.”
Corinne Lejbowicz, Chief Executive Officer of LeGuide.com, added: “The failure of this offer is excellent news for LeGuide.com. The group thus preserves its industrial and financial assets to pursue its growth strategy. LeGuide.com is reiterating its ambition to strengthen its position as number 2 European shopping guides and to take full advantage of the consolidation of the European e-commerce market in the forthcoming months. Bryan, Garnier’s role, commitment and energy have been essential in the failure of this offer. Bryan, Garnier’s close relations with the institutional and private equity investors’ community enabled us to communicate smoothly with our investor base.”
Professionals involved in this transaction:
Virginie Lazès / Managing Director – Head of Corporate Finance / +33 1 56 68 75 85 | vlazes@bryangarnier.com
Christian Finan / Director – Equity Capital Markets / +33 1 56 68 75 30 | cfinan@bryangarnier.com
Alexandre Boukhari / Associate – Corporate Finance / +33 1 56 68 75 39 | aboukhari@bryangarnier.com
Bruno Attali / Analyst – Corporate Finance / +33 1 56 68 75 22 | battali@bryangarnier.com
About LeGuide.com
LeGuide.com S.A. is the 2nd publisher of online shopping guides in Europe on December 2008 and the No. 1 French independent editor in France. Strongly successful in France with its sites www.leguide.com, www.leguide.net and www.webmarchand.com, the company has been developing its business model abroad since 2004. The LeGuide.com S.A. network is operational in 14 countries: in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark. As of July 1st 2008, LeGuide.com S.A. integrates the activities of www.dooyoo.com, a shopping guide present in 4 key markets in European e-commerce (Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy) and which possesses a real expertise in consumer opinions and ratings. LeGuide.com S.A. revenues for the 2008 fiscal year were 18 M€ and the company counts as of the end of December a team of around 100 collaborators.
LeGuide.com S.A. is qualified as “Innovative Business” by the OSEO Anvar and is listed on Alternext on NYSE Euronext Paris stock exchange.