By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Kohl's stock (NYSE:KSS) surged nearly 29% in Monday’s premarket after newswires reported that private equity firm Sycamore Partners has effectively started a bidding war for the department store chain.
The size of Sycamore’s offer isn’t known yet.
Last week, a group backed by activist hedge fund Starboard Value offered about $9 billion for Kohl’s. The offer is led by Acacia Research, which is run by Clifford Press. Acacia owns less than 5% of department store chain.
The interest in the retailer is the latest example of pressure from activist investors on it to explore steps to boost the stock price.
Macellum Advisors, another activist, is also renewing a push to make changes to its board. It has a stake of around 5% stake in Kohl’s.
Kohl’s shares closed Friday at $46.84, giving it a market value of $6.52 billion. The stock has rebounded from its pandemic lows but has essentially gone sideways for more than two decades.
Just last month, Engine Capital, with around 1% in the company, had urged the company’s board to consider a sale or a separation of its faster-growing e-commerce business.