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By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - Kingfisher's takeover of MrBricolage looked increasingly shaky on Wednesday as the FrenchDIY stores chain revealed its franchisee shareholders wereunhappy with the number of stores the buyer planned to sell towin antitrust clearance.
On Tuesday, Kingfisher, Europe's No. 1 homeimprovement retailer, had already cast doubt on the deal, whichvalues Mr Bricolage at 275 million euros ($301 million) including debt.
It said it had been told that the majority of the board ofMr Bricolage and majority shareholder ANPF, which isheld by franchisees, had reservations about the deal.
"The Board of Directors of Mr Bricolage believes that hadthe commitments proposed by Kingfisher been implemented, itwould have led a large number of stores under the Mr Bricolageand Les Briconautes brands to exit France definitively," MrBricolage said in a statement.
A source close to the matter said Kingfisher had proposed tosell about 60 stores in France to meet antitrust concerns, wellbeyond what had been anticipated by the French camp. MrBricolage has 797 stores in France, the bulk of them run byfranchise holders.
In April 2014 Kingfisher entered exclusive talks with MrBricolage's two main shareholders to buy their shareholding for15 euros a share, subject to anti-trust clearance.
It was planning subsequently to make a mandatory offer tobuy out minorities.
Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q, the market leader in Britain,had proposed to buy 41.9 percent from Association Nationale desPromoteurs de Faites Le Vous-Meme (ANPF), a group offranchisees, and 26.2 percent from the Tabur family.
The deal would add Mr Bricolage to Kingfisher's Castoramaand Brico Depot brands in France, its most profitable market. Itwas submitted to French competition authorities in late January.
Mr Bricolage said it now awaited Kingfisher's position.
Mr Bricolage said it would communicate about anydevelopments regarding the merger plan as soon as possible.
Until then Mr Bricolage shares remain suspended.
The deal is seen as the first test for Kingfisher's newchief executive, Veronique Laury, who replaced Sir Ian Cheshireon Dec. 8 and is due to present 2014-15 results on March 31.
($1 = 0.9122 euros) (reporting by Andrew Callus and Dominique Vidalon; Editing byMichel Rose)
