Indigo to go private. What changes could the retailer make off public markets?
A bid to exit publicly traded markets could give Indigo Books & Music the “nimbleness” needed for the struggling retailer to execute on its comeback plans, according to some analysts.
Shareholders voted Monday in favour of a $2.50 per share offer from Trilogy Retail Holdings Inc. and Trilogy Investments L.P., which already held a 56 per cent stake in Indigo and are owned by Gerald Schwartz, the spouse of Indigo chief executive Heather Reisman.
Some 95 per cent of votes cast from shareholders represented at Monday’s meeting were in favour of the proposed deal, which marks a more than 69 per cent bump in share price from where Indigo’s stock was at the time of the initial offer.
Indigo has said it expects the transaction to close in June and its shares to be delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange sometime after.
“We are pleased with the result of today’s vote and look forward to continuing our work on Indigo’s transformation strategy,” Reisman said in a statement following the vote.
“We remain deeply committed to our customers and to all our stakeholders as we work together to inspire reading and enrich the lives of booklovers across the country.”
Indigo’s fortunes on the public markets have dwindled since the turn of the millennium, when shares traded for nearly $35 on the TSX.
In recent years, the retailer has struggled to rebound from a cyberattack that knocked down its e-commerce capabilities for months and a management shake-up that saw Reisman return to the helm last September to fill the void left by departing executives and board members.
In its latest earnings report in February, Indigo said third-quarter profits dropped roughly 70 per cent to $10 million from $34.3 million a year earlier.
Revenues for the
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