(Reuters) -Frasers plans to make a mandatory offer for Norwegian sporting goods retailer XXL ASA, the British retailer said on Tuesday, just weeks after dropping its bid to buy equity it did not already own in the company.
Frasers Group has been allocated 21.6 million A-shares in XXL ASA’s fully underwritten rights issue, and an additional 777,289 A-shares as compensation for the group’s guarantee in the issue, XXL said.
The new allocation brings Frasers’ total stake to about 32.9% of all shares and 40.8% of the voting A-shares.
With this, Frasers Group will surpass the 1/3 ownership threshold under Norwegian securities law, triggering a mandatory bid for the remaining shares.
Frasers, which previously held a 25.8% stake in XXL, launched a bid in December but dropped it two months later, saying several of XXL’s other large shareholders would not accept the offer.
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil and Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)
