The flagship Hudson Bay Company store is pictured in Toronto on Jan. 27, 2014.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
A special committee of the Hudson’s Bay Co.'s board is reaffirming its endorsement of a buyout of shares to take the company private after receiving an updated valuation, one of the conditions of a deal that was announced earlier this month.
On Jan. 3, the company that owns the chain of department stores announced a group headed by executive chairman Richard Baker raised its going-private offer to $11 a share, satisfying Catalyst Capital Group, its leading rival shareholder, which controls about 17.5 per cent of the company’s common shares.
Catalyst said that one condition was that TD Securities Inc. provide a new formal valuation of Hudson’s Bay prior to a vote and that “the lower end of the range of the fair market value of the HBC Shares is equal to or less than $11.”
In a news release Monday, HBC said the updated valuation determined that, as of that day, the fair market value of the common shares of HBC ranged between $9.75 and $12 for each common share.
The release says that TD Securities determined that the payment to the common shareholders of HBC “is fair, from a financial point of view, to such shareholders.”
A vote on the transaction will be held at a special meeting of shareholders on Feb. 27, and to pass it will need at least 75 per cent of the votes cast by all shareholders and at least a simple majority of votes by minority shareholders, including Catalyst.
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