- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Mitt Romney’s Bain Capitol To Possibly Buyout Staples Inc
Staples is in talks with Bain Capital and several other buyout firms about a deal that could take the office supply store chain private again.
The parties weren’t commenting on the talks, first published by Fortune.com on Thursday.
Discussions were preliminary, with possible bids not expected until later this year, in part to avoid the media glare likely to focus on one of the signature business achievements of presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, Fortune noted.Staples opened its first store in Brighton, Mass., in 1986, with backing from Bain, which Romney co-founded. Romney served on Staples’ board for more than a decade and helped shape its success. Today the company has 1,915 stores in North America and 375 internationally.
The Republican presidential hopeful has cited its growth on the campaign trail.
Last month the company posted lower-than-expected results for the second quarter and cut its sales and profit forecasts. It cited a sluggish global economy and weak demand in North America.
The company competes against office retailers Office Depot and OfficeMax . It also cites competition from mass-market retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target .
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/us-staples-pe-staples-idINBRE88C1FZ20120913
PE firms interested in taking Staples private
Several private equity firms including Bain Capital are considering a buyout offer for retailer Staples Inc , Fortune reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.Bain Capital, which helped to take the largest U.S. office supply public more than two decades ago, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. Staples declined to comment.
The discussions have been preliminary thus far and the earliest an actual offer could come would be late this year, the sources told Fortune.
The report came less than a month after Staples cut its profit and sales forecasts for the year, citing slower growth in the U.S. economy and continued weakness in Europe.
Staples shares, which have lost about a quarter of their value over the past six months, rose 3.6 percent to close at $11.96 Thursday on Nasdaq. They rose further in after-hours trading.
The company has a market cap of about $8 billion.
Staples, once regarded by Wall Street as the best of the publicly listed office supply chains, has suffered from sluggish sales in the past year as European demand remains weak and U.S. business customers spend less on non-essential items.Rivals Office Depot and OfficeMax have also found it harder to sustain or boost sales as the office supply industry faces strong competition from mass merchants, drugstores, dollar stores and online giant Amazon Inc
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.