This leaves just ABN AMRO in contention for Drouot, although several other offers are believed to have been made for the weekly Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, which is owned by the Paris commissaires-priseurs. So far they have insisted that the Gazette will not be sold separately from their other assets, which include the Hôtel Drouot and their two other sales venues in Paris, Drouot-Montaigne and Drouot-Paris Nord.
Drouot chief Dominique Ribeyre declined to comment in the wake of AXA’s announcement.
Drouot loses two out of three takeover bids
Insurance giants AXA and Barclays Private Equity have withdrawn their offers to buy Drouot. In a statement issued on May 13, AXA said that their €82m offer, tabled on March 21, was to be “considered null and void, given the difficulty in obtaining the support of a majority of commissaires-priseurs”.
