April 29 Reuters Hong Konglisted L39;Occitane International39;s chairman and controlling shareholder will take the French skincare firm private, valuing it at a maximum of HK13.91 billion 1.78 billion, the company said on Monday.

Reuters reported in early April that L39;Occitane39;s Chairman Reinold Geiger was in advanced talks with investors and lenders about the deal, with U.S. private equity giant Blackstone looking to provide debt financing to fund the deal.

As part of the deal, Austrian billionaire Geiger39;s investment holding company L39;Occitane Groupe in Luxembourg will pay HK34 for each share not already owned, representing a 30.8 premium to the stock39;s last close of HK26 on Feb. 5.

L39;Occitane Groupe owned 72.39 of the cosmetics company at Marchend.

The investment holding firm does not intend to increase the offer price for the deal, which comes a few months after Geiger shelved a buyout attempt for the company.

Geiger plans to finance a part of the deal using external debt facilities acquired from affiliates of Blackstone and Goldman Sachs Group.

L39;Occitane International39;s shares, which were halted on April 9, will resume trading on Tuesday.

J.P. Morgan will be the financial adviser for L39;Occitane Groupe.

1 7.8265 Hong Kong dollars

Reporting by Roushni Nair and Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Sherry JacobPhillips and Shounak Dasgupta

Source Reuters