(News Bulletin 247) – Michaël Friborg is proposing a public purchase offer at 12 euros per share for the small conglomerate, reflecting a premium of 34% compared to Thursday’s closing price. But the manager does not intend to delist the company.

Clearly, announcements of public purchase offers for mid-caps are increasing this month of December on the Paris Stock Exchange. After the air and maritime transport engineering specialist Clasquin and the SII technology group, now comes the turn of Chargeurs.

Founded in 1872 and present on the Stock Exchange since 1996, this company has seen its activity evolve over the course of its history (first in maritime transport then in the media and cinema, which led to the split of Pathé into 1996, as well as in the textile industry). Today the group is a small conglomerate bringing together niche professions around protection and wool (surface protection, interlining, museum fittings and even the production of combed wool for the luxury industry).

This cutting-edge positioning has taken place since 2015 and the purchase of shares from the former management, Eduardo Malone and Jérôme Seydoux, by the current CEO of Chargeurs, Michaël Fribourg. The latter currently holds 26.5% of the capital of Chargeurs via its holding companies.

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The manager seems to have decided that with the fall in Chargeurs’ share price (more than 40% since the start of the year), it had become opportune to strengthen his position in his own group. Especially since the action was perhaps at an inflection point.

The independent research firm AlphaValue recently underlined that “the worst was behind” Chargeurs because its “advanced materials” division, i.e. plastic and paper films or technical adhesives to protect surfaces, showed obvious signs of recovery, after having suffered for a good part of 2023 from the fall in volumes among its industrial customers.

An opportunistic operation?

Thus Michaël Fribourg has decided to launch, via his companies Colombus Holding and Colombus Holding 2, a public offer for Chargeurs shares, at a price per share of 12 euros, which represents a premium of approximately 34% compared to Thursday’s closing price. evening (8.95 euros). This premium amounts to 50.5% compared to the average volume-weighted price over the last three months.

“This project aims to consolidate the strategy of the Chargeurs group, a world leader in niche industrial and service activities, and to give it a shareholder structure more consistent with its diversified model and its objectives,” Colombus Holding explained in a press release.

The Chargeurs board of directors has taken note of this takeover bid, welcoming it favorably. Very important point: If Michaël Friborg intends to exceed 50% of the capital (which is the lapse threshold of the offer), he does not intend to delist Chargeurs and intends to maintain “a significant level of free float to ensure solid liquidity actions”. This will prevent the Paris Stock Exchange from losing a significant midcap, even if its free float will necessarily be reduced.

In the meantime, Chargeurs shares jumped 29.6% to 11.60 euros this Friday morning to get closer to the premium offered by the takeover bid.

“If the premium is generous compared to the last price, the operation seems to be part of an opportunistic logic, with a recent weakness in its stock price following disappointing publications in 2023. To illustrate it , the price was still trading at 16 euros last March and had reached 30 euros in November 2021″, underlines Invest Securities.