Sears in Bid for Restoration Hardware

New York, Sears Holdings Corp has proposed buying Restoration Hardware Inc. for $6.75 per share, according to a regulatory filing on Monday.

The offer—made in a Nov. 23 letter to Restoration which Sears included in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing—would top a management-led buyout valued at $6.70 a share, or $267 million, that Restoration agreed to earlier this month.

Sears Holdings last week disclosed it owns a 13.7% stake in Restoration and had initially proposed a $4-a-share bid after being informed in late October that Restoration was weighing a management buyout.

Sears asked a special committee of Restoration's board for confidential information to submit a binding proposal for it, which was denied, according to the letter to the special panel of Restoration's board attached to the SEC filing.

The proposed $6.75 per-share tender offer, therefore, was based solely on publicly available information, Sears executive VP William C. Crowley said in the letter.

Restoration announced on Nov. 8 that it agreed to a buyout in a deal that includes private-equity firm Catterton Partners. It is soliciting competing proposals from third parties during a 35-day period that ends Dec.13.

A representative for Restoration Hardware and a spokesman for Sears Holdings both declined to comment.