Brazil's Centauro lifts Netshoes buyout offer by 11%, deepens bidding war

 Grupo SBF SA, operator of Brazil’s Centauro stores, again boosted its offer for Netshoes Cayman Ltd, this time to $4.10 per share, the latest move in a bidding war over the online sports retailer with Magazine Luiza SA.

According to a securities filing on Thursday night, the new offer raises the value of Grupo SBF’s bid to about $127.3 million, a 10.8% rise over the previous $3.70 per share bid.

The bidding war underpins the importance to traditional retailers of internet merchants - even ones like Netshoes, which has suffered widening losses in recent years - to attract online shoppers who use their smartphones and tablets.

Shares in Netshoes ended up 10.5% on Thursday at $3.80, but still a fraction of their $18 IPO price in April 2017.

Earlier on Thursday, retailer Magazine Luiza matched Centauro’s previous offer of $3.70, which represents an 85% increase from its initial bid of $2 per share disclosed at the end of April.

In its latest offer, SBF maintained a previously proposed loan of 120 million reais ($31 million) to boost Netshoes’ immediate working capital needs, with a commitment to release 70 million reais two days after the signature of a merger agreement.

Netshoes’ shareholders are scheduled to deliberate on the transaction on Friday.