The Ottakar's board has agreed, in the absence of a higher offer, to recommend the latest bid to shareholders.
The offer, at 285p a share, values the company at£62.8 million. This represents a 0.7 per cent discount on the closing price of Ottakar's shares last night. However, the offer is also a 1.4 per cent premium on the share price last August, before bid speculation first began.
HMV Group chief executive Alan Giles said: 'A combined Waterstone's and Ottakar's business will create an exciting quality bookseller, able to better respond to the increasingly competitive pressures of the retail market.'
Ottakar's chairman Philip Dunne said: 'New levels of competition from supermarkets and online retailers have an impact on all specialist booksellers and, in particular, those with insufficient scale to compete on equal terms. Against this background, and given the costs and risks associated with implementing the necessary restructuring programme to compete longer term, the board believes that the offer is fair and reasonable.'
Earlier this month Ottakar's rejected a bid from HMV, saying the offer was at a price per share 'materially below the market price'.
Ottakar's accepted a 440p-per-share offer from HMV last year, but the bid collapsed when it was referred to the Competition Commission. The Commission gave the green light to a merger between the two on May 12. The Commission concluded that the existence of supermarkets and internet retailers means that the merged company would have little ability to raise prices.
Ottakar's has about 130 stores, compared with Waterstone's 200 outlets. The majority of Ottakar's stores are in smaller towns.
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