(News Bulletin 247) – The timetable for Chargeurs’ public purchase offer for its own shares is becoming clearer. The offer will be open on February 8 and will run until March 13. Its manager does not intend to delist the company following this operation.

Announced in mid-December, Chargeurs’ takeover bid for its own shares is taking shape. The conglomerate founded in 1872 and present on the stock market since 1996 announced that it had filed this proposed takeover bid with the Financial Markets Authority at the end of last week.

The group brings together niche professions around protection and wool (surface protection, covering, museum fittings and even the production of combed wool for the luxury industry).

As part of this takeover bid, Michaël Friborg has undertaken via his companies Colombus Holding and Colombus Holding to repurchase the Chargeurs shares, which he does not hold, i.e. 70.18% of the capital, and 70.5% of the rights of vote. The document filed with the AMF specifies that Colombus Holding held, before the launch of the operation, 26.5% of the capital and 29.5% of the voting rights.

According to the indicative timetable provided by the company, the offer will be open on February 8 and will run until March 13. Remember that it was formulated at a price of 12 euros per share. This price represents a premium of approximately 34% compared to the closing price on Thursday December 14 (8.95 euros).

If Michaël Fribourg intends to exceed 50% of the capital – which is the threshold for the offer to lapse -, he does not intend to delist Chargeurs and intends to maintain “a significant level of free float to ensure solid liquidity of the shares”. This will prevent the Paris Stock Exchange from losing a nice midcap, at a time when the Parisian stock market is losing ground, even if its free float will necessarily be reduced.

An opportunistic operation

Why did the manager of Chargeurs announce such an operation? The manager seems to have decided that with the fall in the price of Chargeurs (more than 40% at the time he announced this operation), it had become opportune to strengthen his position in his own group, as TP ICAP Midcap recalled in its note. dedicated to the “surprise” announcement of this takeover bid.

“This is Michaël Fribourg’s desire to adapt the group’s shareholder structure in the face of a very volatile environment which has led to constant downward pressure on the group’s valuation,” Florian Cariou explained last month, the analyst in charge of Chargeurs coverage at TP ICAP Midcap.

With this offer, the Friborg family group reaffirms its confidence in the group’s prospects by giving itself time and more peace of mind to deploy its long-term strategic plan, continued the analyst.

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

A window of liquidity for shareholders

This operation “at the same time offers an interesting liquidity window for shareholders who do not wish to wait for the rebound of the group’s cyclical activities in an environment that is still very uncertain, particularly for 2024,” added TP ICAP Midcap.

The financial intermediary also took advantage of this announcement to update its estimates for 2023 and subsequent years, particularly for Chargeurs Protective Films (temporary surface protection). According to him, this division should in particular achieve a weaker second half of 2023 than expected in terms of margins despite a small anticipated rebound in the fourth quarter.

For 2024, TP ICAP Midcap wanted to position itself “out of caution” under the group’s objectives (800 million euros in turnover with an EBITDA margin between 9 and 10%)”, while waiting to have concrete elements of recovery on Chargeurs Protective Films.” Despite this, the results should still be improved compared to the low point of 2023″, added the financial intermediary who continued to estimate that “the current valuation (even on the levels of the upcoming takeover bid) is very far from the fundamental value of the group”. Which pushed it, on the day of the announcement on December 15, to maintain its purchase recommendation with a price target slightly adjusted to 17 euros compared to 18 euros.