Dufry to extend Autogrill offer as inches closer to delisting

MILAN (Reuters) -Swiss duty-free retailer Dufry's offer for Autogrill has secured shares accounting for around 87% of its capital, Reuters calculations based on bourse data showed on Thursday, moving closer to delisting the Italian group.

Dufry said it aimed to delist Autogrill shares from Euronext Milan, which requires it to get to 90% of the Italian group.

"The offer will be reopened for a further 5 days in order to give Autogrill shareholders an additional window to tender their shares," a source close to Dufry told Reuters.

Borsa Italiana said that, according to provisional data, the take-up in the offer for Autogrill reached 74.3% of the shares targeted by the bid.

Earlier this year, Dufry completed the acquisition of a 50.3% stake from Benetton family holding Edizione, which became the Swiss group's largest shareholder.

Dufry later tendered for the remaining Autogrill shares, offering 0.158 new Dufry shares for each Autogrill share or 6.33 euros for each share in the Italian group.

Alternatively, it said it could take the company private through a merger.

(Reporting by Elisa Anzolin; Editing by Federico Maccioni and Alexander Smith)