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Top shareholder in France's Darty backs Steinhoff's $975 mln bid

(Removes incorrect reference in second paragraph of APRIL 11 story saying Steinhoff is the biggest retailer by market capitalisation)

JOHANNESBURG, April 11 (Reuters) - A top shareholder in Darty Plc (LSE: DRTA.L - news) will back Steinhoff's $975 million takeover bid for the French electronic goods retailer, the South African furniture group said Monday.

Steinhoff said its offer had the support of Schroder Investment Management, a British hedge fund firm. Schroder owns about 14 percent of Europe's third-largest electronics retailer, making it the biggest shareholder.

Investors have until May 2 to accept the offer, which trumped a competing bid from French retailer Fnac last month and has the backing of Darty's board.

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The transaction would bulk up Steinhoff's presence in Europe, where it already makes more than two-thirds of its 9.8 billion euros ($11.18 billion) of annual sales.

Darty earns 70 percent of its revenue in France but has 400 stores across Europe and competes with Media-Saturn, owned by Germany's Metro (Other OTC: MTRAF - news) , and with Britain's Dixons. Steinhoff's Conforama, like Darty and Fnac, has a strong presence in French high streets and retail parks. ($1 = 0.8762 euros) (Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by Susan Thomas)