Whirlpool Ends Merger Talks With AGA Rangemaster
September 11 2015 - 3:40PM
Dow Jones News
Whirlpool Corp., the world's largest home-appliance manufacturer
by sales, has dropped merger talks with British cast-iron range
cooker maker AGA Rangemaster Group, according to a regulatory
filing.
The announcement comes days after AGA's shareholders backed a
takeover bid of £ 129 million, or about $198 million, from Middleby
Corp., a maker of commercial and residential cooking equipment
based in Elgin, Ill. A court hearing to sanction the deal is
scheduled for Sept. 16.
The U.K.'s Takeover Panel, which sets rules governing mergers
and acquisitions, had given Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool a
Sept. 14 deadline to make a final and binding proposal for AGA.
AGA touts famous backers including British chef Jamie Oliver and
Mary Berry, a judge on "The Great British Bake Off," a British
Broadcasting Corp. program. Its hulking and expensive stoves heated
by a constant source—at one point coal, now more often natural gas
or heating oil—have become one of Britain's quintessential
brands.
The Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator was designed by Swedish
scientist and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Gustaf Dalé n in 1922.
The company started selling ovens on a commercial scale in
1929.
Ian Walker contributed to this article.
Write to Maria Armental at maria.armental@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 11, 2015 15:25 ET (19:25 GMT)
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