By (Reuters) – French workplace supplies provider Elis SA made an informal takeover proposal to U.S. peer UniFirst (NYSE:UNF) 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.
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.
($1 = 0.9060 euros)