Kingfisher Approached for French Electronics Chain Nov 4, 2002

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Kingfisher Plc, the home- improvement retailer which
plans to sell shares in its consumer electronics division next year, has been approached by parties interested in buying its French electronics chain BUT. The retailer received at least four bids for BUT, valuing the chain at as much as 480 million pounds (U.S. $751 million), the
Financial Times said. Bidders include Eurazeo SA, an investment unit of Lazard LLC, and PAI Management, a buyout firm 49-percent owned by BNP Paribas SA, the newspaper said.

"We're now examining these offers and deciding whether to take this process forward,'' Duncan Campbell-Smith, a spokesman for Kingfisher. The company wants to shed its electronics chains, including the UK's Comet and Promarkt in Germany, to focus on home improvement units such as Britain's B&Q and Castorama in France. It has said it plans to sell shares in the electronics division in France during the second quarter of next year.

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