Investindustrial’s principal partner Andrea Bonomi has written two letters to directors of his bid target Club Mediterranée in the last few days asking for updated financial information and stressing why they must not support a counterbid by Chinese conglomerate Fosun (see a previous post by BeBeez).
The first letter is dated September 26, two weeks after Bonomi’s bid was trumped by Gaillon Invest II, a takeover vehicle led by Fosun and its controlling shareholder, the Chinese billionaire Guo Guangchang. In the letter addressed to independent board members, Bonomi’s Global Resorts asks whether Gaillon was provided with any additional or updated information to which Global Resorts did not have access.
In the second letter dated October 3 (download here Global Resort’s letter) Bonomi stresses the reasons why in his view Fosun’s bid is not positive for Club Med and his actual shareholders. More in detail, Global Resorts says that Fosun actually does not have any real specific experience in the touristic sector, that Fosun’s allies (U-Tour and Docas Investimentos) are in conflict of interest with Club Med, that Fosun will invest too poor money (50 million euros versus 150 millions promised by Global Resorts) to support future Club Med business development, that the financing structure of the proposed deal has not been disclosed and that Gallion’s project does not specific any special interest for developing CLub Med’s business in Europe or France, but in China only.
