Vinted wants to swallow Rebelle

The takeover comes as a surprise, as Rebelle only recently went public.

According to fashionunited.de, the owner of the second-hand online market Vinted has contacted Rebelle in Germany. The company is said to have made a corresponding takeover bid on Monday. According to the offer, Vinted is offering the current shareholders of Rebelle AB 14.10 Swedish kronor, the equivalent of around 1.35 euros, per share. This represents an increase of 8.46% compared to the closing price on Friday last week, the last trading day before the takeover bid. The total amount of the offer thus amounts to around 315 million Swedish kronor with just under 22.4 million Rebelle shares outstanding (30 million euros). The offer period will last until August 19.

Vinted already has a majority, as several major Rebelle owners, who together own 64.7% of the shares, have already made "irrevocable commitments" to accept the offer prior to the offer. In addition to Max Schönemann, the CEO of Rebelle, these are the main investors HCS Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Friheden Invest A/S and Deutsche Balaton AG. For the takeover to be successful, Vinted must be able to acquire at least 90% of the shares and receive the approval of the relevant competition authorities. Vinted CEO Thomas Plantenga wants to combine the qualities of the two companies and explains the takeover plan: "By combining Rebelle's expertise in this segment with Vinted's geographic reach and large member base, we see great potential to provide consumers with a higher quality offering and ultimately promote the acceptance of second-hand".

According to the company, Vinted was founded in 2008 and operates a C2C second-hand marketplace that is currently accessible in 16 European and North American countries and has more than 65 million users.