Corp Express willing to talk as Staples ups bid - Business

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Business News

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NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Corporate Express said on Tuesday it was willing to talk to U.S. office supplies retailer Staples Inc after it raised its offer for the Dutch business products wholesaler.

By Aarthi Sivaraman and Gilbert Kreijger
NEW YORK/AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Corporate Express said on Tuesday it was willing to talk to U.S. office supplies retailer Staples Inc after it raised its offer for the Dutch business products wholesaler.
Staples raised its offer by more than 10 percent to 8 euros per share from a previous bid of 7.25 euros, which Corporate Express has repeatedly rejected as too low.
The Dutch firm said in a statement it was willing to talk to Staples about the revised offer and did not reiterate that Staples' offer undervalued the company.
Based on about 182.1 million shares in issue, the new offer values Corporate Express at about 1.46 billion euros ($2.3 billion). Including debt, it is worth about 2.6 billion euros.
Analysts said the offer might have to rise further, and shares in Corporate Express touched a high of 8.15 euros and were up 6.3 percent at 8.09 euros by 0837 GMT, outperforming a 0.5 percent rise of the Amsterdam blue chip index.
The new offer showed Staples wanted to succeed with its bid and could be willing to raise its offer again, Rabo Securities analysts Philip Scholte and David Tailleur said in a note.
Analysts had anticipated that Staples would raise its bid for Corporate Express and said that a tie-up between the retailer and wholesaler of office supplies would make strategic sense and could lead to big savings at a time both companies seek to combat a downturn in the U.S. economy.
Before Corporate Express made its statement, Staples said its attempt to hold talks with the company, as recently as last Friday, had failed after the board refused to negotiate.

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