Carl Icahn’s Icahn Enterprises L.P. has entered into an agreement to acquire The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack for$18.50 per share, or approximately $1.03 billion. The merger agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies.
“This was a terrific opportunity to leverage the financial resources and industry knowledge of Icahn Enterprises to the benefit of Pep Boys’ customers, manufacturer partners and employees and further bolster our U.S. automotive footprint,” said Icahn, chairman of Icahn Enterprises. “Since our acquisition of Auto Plus, our wholly-owned automotive aftermarket company, in June, we have been actively looking for an excellent synergistic acquisition opportunity like Pep Boys, which has enormous growth potential, strong brand recognition, and well-known, best-in-class customer service.”
The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.
This news comes following Bridgestone’s decision to no longer participate in a bidding war for the auto part, service and tire retailer. Under the previous merger agreement with Bridgestone, Icahn Enterprises paid, on behalf of Pep Boys, a termination fee of $39.5 million to the tiremaker.
