Tod’s founder abandons plan to delist company

MILAN (Reuters) – The founding family of Italian luxury shoemaker Tod’s said it was ditching a plan to delist the company after its initial buyout failed to meet the required threshold of support.

DeVa Finance, the holding company of the founding Della Valle family, said it would not proceed with an operation that could be considered hostile or at least “not market friendly”.

Tod’s founder and Chairman Diego Della Valle and his brother Andrea had offered to buy out other investors at 40 euros a share but that failed to gain the requisite 90% support. They had the option to try to de-list the company via a merger with DeVa Finance as an alternative.

“We noted that some of our shareholders believed the value of the Tod’s group to be significantly higher than our valuation and preferred to remain in possession of their shares,” Della Valle said in a statement.

(Reporting by Keith Weir, editing by Gianluca Semeraro)