Peninsula Daily News news services
Jo-Ann Stores Inc., which operates a store in Port Angeles, agreed to be acquired by an affiliate of Leonard Green & Partners LP for $1.6 billion to accelerate expansion of the largest U.S. fabric retailer.
The cash offer of $61 a share was 34 percent higher than Wednesday’s closing price of $45.63, Hudson, Ohio-based Jo-Ann Stores said today in a statement. The board can solicit other proposals through Feb. 14.
Going private will enable Jo-Ann Stores to expand faster and boost its share of fabric and craft sales, Chief Executive Officer Darrell Webb said in the statement.
Los Angeles-based Leonard Green is paying about 7.8 times Jo-Ann Stores’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization over the past four quarters, about the same multiple as the median takeover of a U.S. retailer in the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jo-Ann Stores had no outstanding debt at the end of the third quarter ended Oct. 30. Cash totaled $112.4 million at the end of the quarter, $14.7 million more than a year earlier, the company said Dec. 1.
The Jo-Ann store in Port Angeles is located in Port Angeles Plaza shopping center on U.S. Highway 101 at Golf Course Road.
