Australia's Bapcor gets $1.2 billion offer from Bain Capital

By Roushni Nair and Aaditya GovindRao

(Reuters) -Private equity firm Bain Capital has offered to buy Australia's Bapcor in a A$1.83 billion ($1.21 billion) deal, which analysts said could draw attention of more suitors to the struggling auto parts retailer.

Bapcor said on Tuesday its shareholders would receive A$5.4 in cash per share under the terms of the non-binding indicative proposal, representing a premium of 23.9% to the stock's last close of A$4.36 on June 7.

Shares of Bapcor, which had fallen 21% this year by Friday's close, advanced as much as 14.9% to A$5.010 as of 0209 GMT. The stock was the top gainer on the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index, which was down 1.4%.

"The automotive aftermarket is becoming increasingly global. In our view, Bapcor would offer potential suitors a strong position in the Asia Pacific region," Ord Minnett analysts said in a note.

"As such, it is possible the bid from private equity may draw attention to Bapcor from other major industry players from offshore markets."

Bain Capital declined to comment.

Analysts at Citi said the offer "comes at an opportunistic time where governance and management has been suboptimal".

"We are not surprised by Bain's bid given we see Bapcor as a good business, operating in a favourable industry," they said in a note.

Bapcor in May flagged challenging trading conditions for retail performance and concerns around competitive pricing resulting in volume and margin pressures amid higher costs.

The company then warned that profits in the second half of 2024 would be lower than the first half. In late April, Bapcor said Paul Dumbrell would not join the company as its chief executive.

($1 = 1.5135 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Roushni Nair and Aaditya Govind Rao in Bengaluru, Additional reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee; Editing by Vijay Kishore and Subhranshu Sahu)