KKR consortium makes offer for bike maker Accell unconditional

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A consortium led by buyout firm KKR has made its offer to buy Accell Group unconditional, it said on Friday, in a deal that values the maker of Sparta, Batavus and Raleigh at 1.56 billion euros ($1.66 billion).

After receiving 77.8% of shares, the consortium said it would waive a condition of needing to reach an 80% threshold of shares tendered to its 58 euro per share offer for the deal to go through.

The deal is the latest sign of rising investor interest in the e-bike industry, after Dutch bike firm Van Moof raised $128 million from Hillhouse Capital last year to fund its U.S. expansion, and Cerberus Capital Management made an unsuccessful bid for Canada's Dorel Industries.

Holdout shareholders can continue to tender shares at the offer price in a post-offer period that runs through June 23, the consortium said.

Accell shares closed at 57.50 euros per share on Thursday.

($1 = 0.9402 euros)

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; editing by Barbara Lewis)