(Reuters) -Shares in Elis tumbled 16% on Friday after Reuters reported, citing sources, that the French workplace supplies provider had approached Vestis, the former uniform rentals business of Aramark, with an acquisition offer.
The stock is the biggest faller on the pan-European STOXX 600 index, and is on track for its steepest one-day decline in four and a half years.
Elis declined to comment on the report.
Vestis, valued at $3.3 billion on the stock market, has become an acquisition target after recent underperformance due to the loss of key customers.
Midcap Partners analysts said the reported approach echoed Elis’s 2017 Berendsen takeover in which it repeatedly raised its bid and was seen as overpaying, and could pressure the share price in the short term despite the attractiveness of the U.S. market.
