On May 27, the two largest shareholders of Club Mediterranee SA (Club Med), France’s AXA Private Equity and China’s Fosun International Ltd., made an offer of $719 million to buy the rest of France’s famous resort operator. The two bidders own nearly 20 percent of the company currently.
Club Med’s board has said it will appoint an independent expert to evaluate the bid, and one French official said the government is not opposed to the buyout, according to the Wall Street Journal. Club Med’s CEO Henri Giscard d’Estaing told the New York Times that the company is looking to the emerging markets for growth.
“We have to accelerate our growth in emerging markets, the largest of which is China,” he said. “That takes time, and you need shareholder and management stability. The goal of this agreement is to provide that stability.”
