Archer-led consortium to buy Australian toy company

Archer Capital, an Australian private equity firm, is leading a consortium to acquire all the shares of Funtastic, an Australian toy wholesaler.

Established in 1994, Funtastic is a distributor of children’s products in Australia and New Zealand. The company engages in the distribution of a variety of products such as toys, children’s apparel, bags, confectionary, books, electronic learning products and videogames.

The company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange that “it has received a non binding indicative proposal” from a consortium of buyers led by Archer Capital to acquire 100 percent of Funtastic. It added that the Archer Capital-led consortium has offered A$0.80 ($0.77; €0.49) per share in its bid.

The bid values the company at about A$132 million.

Some members of the consortium have stakes in the company from before, Funtastic said, and the buyers have also acquired 22 million shares in the company from ABC Learning, a provider of childcare services, bringing its total interest in the company to 18.8 percent.

The statement said the proposal to buy the company is subject to a few preconditions such as the buyers being satisfied with due diligence investigations into the company, and being satisfied that they can fund the transaction.

Funtastic’s board has begun discussions and opened its books for due dilligence.

Funtastic shares were trading at A$0.535 when a halt was put in place last Friday. Since trading reopened on Wednesday following the company’s statement, the share price has hit a high of A$0.73, and they were last trading at A$0.675.

Calls made to Archer Capital were not returned by press time.