Men's Wearhouse Welcomes Jos. A. Bank's Invitation To Conduct Due Diligence

(RTTNews) - Men's Wearhouse, Inc.'s (MW) has Friday welcomed smaller rival Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Inc.'s (JOSB) invitation to conduct due diligence. Men's Wearhouse said it is ready to begin discussions on the proposed offer to acquire Jos. A. Bank in order to strike a mutually acceptable deal.

Men's Wearhouse President and CEO Douglas Ewert added in his letter to Jos. A. Bank Chairman Robert Wildrick that he is looking forward to working collaboratively with the Jos. A. Bank Board and management to forge a deal that would provide shareholders with a substantial premium and immediate value.

On Thursday, Jos. A. Bank board unanimously rejected Men's Wearhouse's sweetened $63.50 per share unsolicited offer as being inadequate, but said it is open to discussions on a possible deal and a further sweetened offer.

Jos. A. Bank also agreed to meet with Men's Wearhouse for talks on the deal to gauge the highest price that Men's Wearhouse is prepared to pay, the transaction structure, and due diligence.

Houston, Texas-based Men's Wearhouse had on Monday sweetened its offer for Jos. A. Bank to $63.50 a share, and also offered to up the ante to $65.00 if the clothing retailer terminates its deal to buy Eddie Bauer, which was agreed upon on February 14.

Men's Wearhouse had launched an hostile sweetened offer of $57.50 per share on January 6 and commenced a cash tender to acquire Jos. A. Bank in an all-cash deal valued at about $1.6 billion. It had originally offered $55.00 per share on November 26, after Jos. A. Bank withdrew its acquisition offer for Men's Wearhouse.

The flurry of acquisition bids between Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank began nearly five months ago, when Jos. A. Bank offered to buy its bigger rival Men's Wearhouse for $2.3 billion on October 9. However, Men's Wearhouse immediately rejected that offer, and launched a counter bid to buy Jos. A. Bank for $1.2 billion, which was then sweetened to about $1.6 billion.

In Friday's regular trading session, MW is currently trading at $52.53, up $2.11 or 4.18% on a volume of 24,590 shares, and JOSB is currently trading at $62.42, up $2.12 or 3.52% on a volume of 0.27 million shares.