Private equity groups close in on Pets at Home
FOUR firms were thought to have launched bids of up to £800m for Pets at Home last night.
Apax Partners, Bain, KKR and TPG made it through to a second round of bidding for the company and all four were expected to table bids before the deadline last night.
The company will then decide whether to accept the highest bid or go ahead with a widely mooted initial public offering in the summer.
A company spokesman told City A.M.: “We will be taking our time considering any offers that come in and I wouldn’t expect an announcement to be immediately forthcoming.”
The bidding war for the 252-store chain was fuelled by strong results over christmas. Like-for-like sales climbed 6.7 per cent in the six weeks to 7 January. Sales were up 9.8 per cent for the year.
More than 1.4m presents were bought from Pets at Home over Christmas.