SYDNEY (Reuters) – South Africa’s Woolworths Holdings Ltd offered on Tuesday to buy the 12 percent of Australian clothes retailer Country Road Ltd it does not already own from billionaire Solomon Lew for A$213 million ($200.20 million).
The offer potentially ends a stand-off over bigger takeover target David Jones Ltd. Woolworths wants to buy David Jones, Australia’s No. 2 retailer, for A$2.2 billion but Lew has amassed a holding of just under 10 percent of David Jones, potentially enabling him to block the takeover.
The move by Melbourne-based Lew, who has held his minority stake in Country Road for 17 years, was widely seen as a tactic to force Woolworths, which owns the rest, to buy out his stake, currently worth A$172.28 million, at a profit.
($1 = 1.0639 Australian Dollars)
