Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/21

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Subject: [Leica] FT on Leica/Hermes Deal
From: chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 13:32:50 -0800

Note the last line in the article.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.
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COMPANIES & MARKETS: Herme`s focuses on Leica with a Pounds 10m bid
Financial Times; Nov 21, 2000

Fashion house Herme`s International is seeking to move to the other side of
the lens with a Euros 17m (Pounds 10m) bid for a little less than a third of
Leica, Germany's 150-year-old camera manufacturer.

The move is a departure from Herme`s' leather goods and scarf image and is
the first time a fashion group has sought to buy a camera maker. "This offer
expresses the willingness for an alliance between two companies which have
been inspired for more than 150 years by the same values of excellence,"
said Mireille Maury, deputy managing director of Herme`s.

She declined to say whether Leica's famous M6 camera or up-market binoculars
would shortly be appearing on the shelves of Herme`s stores, saying
discussions would start if the deal went through. The French company is
offering Euros 12.50 a share, a premium of 20.2 per cent to Friday's closing
price, for up to 30 per cent of Leica.

Herme`s was among the first of the fashion houses to move into watchmaking,
a trend that became firmly established when luxury goods giant LVMH
unsuccessfully bid for the watch business of Mannesmann sold by Vodafone
earlier this year. But analysts said they did not expect a rush of companies
into the photography business. Leica, in particular, was seen as an unusual
move as it caters to the professional photographer rather than "ladies who
lunch".

"I would expect most of the companies in the industry to be more focused
than that," said Claire Kent at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. She doubted the
cameras would make an appearance in New York or Paris designer outlets, but
said it was possible that binoculars, as "lifestyle products", could appear,
possibly with Herme`s-branded leather cases.

Jean-Louis Dumas, Herme`s chairman, met Hanns-Peter Cohn, Leica chairman,
when he accompanied a group of artists to the Leica headquarters in Solms
last August. Leica, whose shares were suspended after the offer was
announced, has been losing money. Yesterday it announced increased losses
for the six months to the end of September of DM6.7m on sales up 15.7 per
cent at DM141.5m (Pounds 43.6m). It blamed the increase on the weakness of
the euro and one-off costs associated with a trade fair.

Leica is supporting the bid, which it hopes will rid it of unfriendly
shareholders.

Replies: Reply from "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] FT on Leica/Hermes Deal)
Reply from "B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net> (Re: [Leica] FT on Leica/Hermes Deal)
Reply from Guy Bennett <guybnt@idt.net> (Re: [Leica] FT on Leica/Hermes Deal)