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Zalando has announced its intention to submit a voluntary public offer to acquire up to 100% of German retailer About You Boutique’s share capital in a €1.2bn (£900m) deal.
The deal will bring together two founder-led teams with “a strong cultural fit and complementary capabilities”.
In turn, About You’s management and supervisory boards intend to recommend that shareholders accept the offer for a planned €6.50 (£5.36) per share.
This offer represents a premium of 12% to the median analyst target price of €5.80 (£4.78) and a premium of 107% to About You’s three-month volume-weighted average share price as of 10 December 2024.
News of the deal comes as major About You shareholders Otto Group, Otto Family, Heartland and the About You management entered into binding agreements to sell their shares in the clothing chain, which represents about 73% of About You’s share capital, to Zalando.
About You’s management board members Sebastian Betz, Tarek Müller and Hannes Wiese will also continue their work in their current roles as part of the combined group.
According to Zalando, it intends to drive a dual-brand strategy once it officially acquires About You, offering “distinct” shopping experiences to “better serve the specific needs of customers and partners.
In addition, Zalando believes that About You’s Scayle unit complements its ecommerce operating system Zeos to help enable brands and retailers to “manage their multi-channel business across Europe within a unified platform” featuring logistics, software and service offerings.
In the longer term, Zalando targets significant group EBIT synergies of around €100m (£82.4m) per annum.
Robert Gentz, co-CEO and co-founder of Zalando, said: “Redefining fashion and lifestyle shopping by creating the best possible experience for customers and partners has always driven both our teams. I’m excited about how together we’ll be able to cover a larger share of the fashion and lifestyle market.
“In B2C, we can offer customers and brands distinct and rich shopping experiences. In B2B, combining our complementary software capabilities, Tradebyte and SCAYLE, will create an even more advanced e-commerce operating system that enables brands and retailers to manage their multi-channel business across Europe and beyond.”
