Silvio Denz, founder and majority shareholder of the Swiss Lalique group, has announced the launch of a takeover bid to delist the company from the Swiss stock exchange. By putting an end to a modest free float, the group intends to concentrate on its core activities and a strategy of diversification.
After Tod’s, the Italian specialist in high-end shoes, Lalique has announced its intention to delist from the stock market.
On Friday May 31, Swiss billionaire Silvio Denz, majority shareholder in the Swiss group (with a 51.1% stake), announced the launch of a takeover bid to delist the company from the Swiss stock exchange.
While the Board of Directors “unanimously” supports the takeover bid, due to start on June 17, shareholders will be asked to vote on it at the Annual General Meeting on June 28, Lalique explained in a press release. They have been offered 40 Swiss francs (40.70 euros) per share in cash, a 32.45% premium to the previous day’s closing price on May 30.
Waouh effect on the stock market
The announcement had a Waouh effect on the stock market, where Lalique shares gained 31.13% at 9:27 GMT, to 39.60 Swiss francs (40.4 euros).
While the Group’s free float is “very limited” (just over 6%), such a delisting will enable the Group to “concentrate fully on its activities” and no longer bear the costs of listing, in order in particular to “pursue the implementation of its diversification strategy”, the press release goes on to say.
The free float had already been reduced last year when Müller Handels AG Schweiz (the Swiss branch of a German specialty retailer) increased its stake to 25%. Müller Handels AG Schweiz and the other two main shareholders – the Indian conglomerate Dharampal Satyapal and the Swiss investor Hansjörg Wyss – will remain shareholders once the delisting is completed.
Luxury outsider
Listed on the stock exchange in 2018, the Lalique group is a luxury outsider, present not only in crystal objects, as its name suggests, but also in fragrances operated under its own name or under license (Lalique Fragrances, Bentley Fragrances, Brioni Fragrances, Jaguar Fragrances, Parfums Grès, Parfums Samouraï, Superdry Fragrances), high-end hotels, suncare products (Ultrasun brand) and whisky (via a stake in the Scottish distillery The Glenturret in 2019).
In 2023, sales were €179.2 million (27% of which were generated by the Lalique brand), and net profit €2.4 million.
Behind this mini-conglomerate is Silvio Denz, credited by the Swiss magazine Bilan with a fortune of 350 to 450 million Swiss francs (357 to 459 million euros) at the age of 67. He was the white knight of French crystal maker Lalique in 2008, when he bought the company at a time when it was in the doldrums. Aware of the prestige of the more than one-hundred-year-old crystal maker, and of the name of its creator (in 1888), the famous René Lalique, known for his marvellous Art Nouveau jewelry, Silvio Denz renamed his mini-group. His arrival gave a new lease of life to this crystal manufacturer of jewelry and decorative objects (vases, etc.). But the business continues to face a difficult economic climate.
To be or not to be…in the stock market
The stock market is a source of contrasting strategies in the luxury goods sector.
While the Catalan beauty group Puig entered the Spanish stock market last May, Tod’s recently indicated that it wanted to return to private ownership and escape the pressure of the stock market.
On February 11, a friendly takeover bid was successfully launched on the Milan Stock Exchange by L Catterton, the investment group backed by Lvmh, to acquire 36% of the Italian luxury shoe manufacturer and delist it.
The group’s CEO and main shareholder (along with his family), Diego Della Valle, explained the decision at the time by the desire to “develop the full potential of our individual brands, making all the necessary investments within a timeframe we deem most appropriate”.
Last April, the French perfume group L’Occitane also announced its withdrawal from the Hong Kong stock exchange, to escape “financial market pressures” and save “commercial and administrative resources hitherto devoted to maintaining the short-term value of its share price”.
The same concern for independence and economy is guiding Silvio Denz in his plan to delist the Lalique group from the Swiss stock exchange…
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Read also > TOD’S DOES NOT START THE YEAR ON A HIGH NOTE
Featured Photo: © Lalique
