The tend offer on Marionnaud

Résumé du document

Bernard Marionnaud is a family company. It is the history of Marcel Frydman (73 years old) who decided 20 years ago to buy a perfume shop for his wife with only 100 000 Francs. But he realised after a while that he was very interested in this shop and desired to buy some others to make more profit. So, his aim was to buy gradually several outlets which had serious financial problems for a cheap price and to develop them with his two sons. Thus, he bought in 1996 the firm Bernard Marionnaud. The headquarters is in Vincennes, in the east suburb of Paris. This firm knew a spectacular success. Indeed, during the last five years Marionnaud bought 1100 outlets and is planning to be implanted in Casablanca, in Morocco. Today, the company owns 1215 perfume shops, around 600 in France and about 500 abroad located in 12 countries (in Italy, Poland, Czech republic, Spain, Suisse, Slovakia, Austria, Hungarian, Romania, Bulgaria, Portugal and Tunisia).

Extraits

[...] Finally, we can wonder why AS Watson wanted to buy Marionnaud in spite of its financial problems. This purchase is very reasonable and logical considering AS Watson's strategy of expansion during the last few years. In fact, the company has already owned 3,450 stores in the Hygiene and Beauty sector through the whole Europe (Ici Paris XL in Belgium, Superdrugs and Savers in Great Britain Thus now, by buying Marionnaud with all its stores through Europe and its leader position in France, AS Watson reached the highest point of its strategy by becoming the world number one of Perfume Distributor The financial management implications Marionnaud has chosen new auditors Marionnaud decided to chose new auditors: BDO Gendrot instead of KPMG. [...]

[...] Marionnaud has 20% of the market. This power is an important advantage because it can offer very low prices, about 15% less than those practised by freelance perfume shops. The financial structure of the company is divided this way: own to the 65% own to the public 21% own to the Frydman family Credit Agricole own to the CNP (Albert Frère) But Marionnaud is not only a company which makes profit, it is also a firm which value its social aspect. [...]

[...] THAT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE TENDER OVER HISTORY 3. Rescue package Actually, there's no real rescue package for Marionnaud. In fact, after the publication of all the problems concerning their book, Marionnaud was contacted by AS Watson, a subsidiary of the Chinese conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, owned by Li Ka Shing. This company wanted to discuss about an eventual “friendly purchasing of minority shareholders”. According to a disclosure of the FMA, this operation has begun since February 01st and there's still no indication for the date of its ending. [...]

[...] - Some sounds are run about difficulties concerning the accounting of the fidelity cards. The 17th November 2004. - The publication of the figures is delayed one more time. - It seems that auditors don't find an agreement. - A loss of million is announced by some rumours. - Marionnaud's managers give a warning on its turn over result. The 4 December 2004. - Marionnaud CEO chooses to change its auditors: BDO Gendrot replaces KPMG, its shows an important disagreement concerning the attestation of the figures. The 10th December 2004. [...]

[...] They have also the right to choose a new general director, who can work with Marcel Frydman's son, the former general manager. To close between 15 and 20 stores in France and abroad It seems to be the only way to reduce enough the cost to stop the financial problems of the French company. Thanks to Marcel Frydman it is not a new decision and it doesn't depend on the Chinese group The consequences of the tender offer To begin, the main thing Watson AS will have to do is regaining the confidence of the market, banks, its auditors, the shareholders and the FMA. [...]