Sotheby’s could get offers from rival investors despite $2.66B deal
The bidding war for Sotheby’s may not be over, after all.
The 275-year-old auction house — which agreed this week to sell itself for $2.66 billion to French telecom tycoon Patrick Drahi — could soon get at least two counteroffers from rival investors, The Post has learned.
On one hand, a New York-based bidding bloc of deep-pocketed art aficionados is getting formed to cobble together a superior bid for Sotheby’s, according to sources close to the talks.
The identity of the prospective bidding partners couldn’t immediately be learned, but insiders speculated that prolific art collectors on Wall Street like Ken Griffin, Steve Cohen and Henry Kravis could be among them.
Reps for Cohen and Griffin declined to comment. A rep for Kravis didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Alexander Klabin — a low-profile investor in his early 40s who co-manages the New York hedge fund Senator Investment Group — is among those who have been approached to finance a competing offer, sources said.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based Taikang Asset Management, the largest Sotheby’s shareholder with a 17% stake, is likewise weighing whether to best Drahi’s offer, a source said.
A rep for Sotheby’s declined to comment. A spokesman for Klabin also declined to comment. Taikang couldn’t immediately be reached.
Drahi — who in 2017 bought the Optimum cable network, formerly known as Cablevision, from billionaire James Dolan for $9.8 billion — had beaten out a rival offer when his winning bid was announced last week, according to a source close to the situation.
Drahi’s deal, an agreement reached under pressure from activist investor Dan Loeb, would end Sotheby’s 31-year stint as a public company. It includes the assumption of more than $1 billion in debt, bringing its total value to $3.7 billion.
While Drahi’s $57-a-share offer was a 61% premium to the stock’s closing price the day before it was disclosed, it was the same price Sotheby’s was trading at 12 months ago.
Some analysts argue that Sotheby’s publicly traded status has hamstrung it as it competes with archrival Christie’s. The latter, controlled privately by French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault, can more easily make big wagers on high-dollar artworks without worrying how shareholders will react.
Drahi would collect a $100 million termination fee if his bid were topped. That is equal to 4% of the deal price, in line with what is typical in sales agreements.
As part of its merger agreement with Drahi, Sotheby’s is not allowed to solicit new offers. However, the company’s board can listen.
Sotheby’s has not yet published a proxy statement detailing how it reached its deal with Drahi. If the proxy is filed in July, a shareholder vote would happen around September, giving rival suitors at least a month to submit an offer that would be seriously considered, sources said.