Hong Kong tycoon Dickson Poon is seeking to take his flagship company Dickson Concepts (International) private as he delivered a dire assessment of the city’s ailing retail industry.
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The businessman, who controls 60.5 per cent of the company, offered HK$7.20 a share in cash to buy the remaining 39.5 per cent stake for a total of HK$1.1 billion (US$141.6 million), according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing on Tuesday. The offer price is 51 per cent higher than its price of HK$4.78 on April 23, and above any level over the past 10 years.
Poon made the bid through the trustee of his family trust and would not raise his offer, according to the filing. The offer values the entire company at HK$2.8 billion. The stock was halted on April 24 and will resume trading on Wednesday, the company said.
Dickson Concepts, founded in 1980, operates the Harvey Nichols multi-brand luxury department stores in Hong Kong and mainland China. The company decided to close its outlet at the Landmark in Central in 2023 after almost two decades amid an industry slump, while retaining its space in Pacific Place in Admiralty.
The offer is “a proposal to mitigate declining profits and facilitate flexibility in formulating new business and growth strategies”, the company said. “[This] will require significant investments and result in likely initial losses to be incurred in those new businesses”.
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