French workplace supplies provider Elis SA made an informal takeover proposal to U.S. peer UniFirst Corp, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Massachusetts-based UniFirst approached Elis to assess its interest in a deal after Elis’s takeover approach to rival Vestis Corp became public last month, the report added, reports Reuters.
At the same time, Elis and Vestis are still holding exploratory talks about a potential deal, Bloomberg said.
Elis, UniFirst and Vestis did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Elis and Vestis confirmed the interest about a month ago after Reuters first reported the acquisition offer.
Elis, which has a market value of about 9.2 billion euros ($10.15 billion) including debt, is a provider of workplace supplies and offers maintenance services for uniforms.
