APRIL 2008 W2 SPECIAL ALERTBREAKING NEWS: D&M - New Potential Buyers Emerge
News Agencies Report Bain Capital, Advantage Partners, Merrill Lynch, and Others In Bid for RHJI Shares
<REUTERS><BLOOMBERG><April 10, 2008>Reuters is reporting today that multiple bidders have emerged in the RHJI International, SA auction of its 49% stake in D&M Holdings, Inc. In a report that was also picked up by the Bloomberg, the story identifies Bain Capital and Advantage Partners, two major private equity companies, as in the running for this auction.
Reuters is also reporting that an unnamed retailer of electronic goods from "outside of Japan," in partnership with Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity is also making a bid to buy the RHJI shares.
D&M Holdings is principally owned by RHJI (49% ownership) and Philips (12% ownership). Recently, Philips announced they were turning over their U.S. television business to Funai through a licensing arrangement. Philips had also announced...in a rather vague manner...that there would be other "steps to improve" their financial position. The story from Reuters indicates that the winner of the RHJI shares would most likely additionally bid to purchase the Philips shares for majority ownership of the company.
Reuters was unable to obtain comments from any of the principal players.
D&M, which has grown primarily through acquisitions of other brands, has forecast their annual sales will grow 8% to 108.5 billion yen (approximately $1.1 billion) and profits will grow 11% to 6.4 billion yen (approximately $63.5 million) for the fiscal year ending March 2008. However, for their report of the nine month period ending in December 2007, the company reported profits were actually off 13% to 3.8 billion yen (approximately $37.7 million) due to various acquisition and technology development costs.