Christopher & Banks rejects takeover offer

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Dec 22, 2018

Women's apparel retailer Christopher & Banks Corporation said in a press release that its Board of Directors has rejected an unsolicited proposal from Carson’s Holdings, Inc. to acquire all the company's outstanding stock, instead announcing its own plans to launch an in-house stock repurchasing program. 

A subsidiary of CSC Generation Holdings, Inc., Carson's Holdings offered to acquire all outstanding stock of the company for $0.80 per share. 

"The Board of Directors, in consultation with its outside financial and legal advisors, carefully reviewed and considered the Carson’s Holdings’ proposal and determined that the proposal does not reflect the full, long-term value that the company’s stockholders are expected to receive from execution of the company’s key strategic initiatives and, therefore, was not in the best interests of the company and its stockholders," the company said in a press release. 

The company's board reiterated its goals for fiscal 2019, including increasing net sales by two to three percent, gross margin expansion of 300 to 350 basis points, and a decrease of selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales; using strategies such as improved customer acquisition efforts, well curated merchandise assortments, updated marketing campaigns, new omnichannel features and reducing cost structure. 

According to Christopher & Banks, the company is already "experiencing positive comparable sales at an improved gross margin rate" as a result of these strategies. 

In a further announcement, C&B said its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program "to purchase up to $2.0 million of the company's outstanding common stock" gradually through December 31 of 2019. 

Currently, the retailer said it has about 38.4 million shares of common stock outstanding.