Mercantile NZ Ltd.’s company chair Ron Brierley’s bid for iconic Kiwi department store, Kirkcaldie & Stains, has lapsed after he failed to attract enough acceptances from the company’s shareholders.

The directors of Kirkcaldie & Stains have recommended to the company’s shareholders to reject Mercantile NZ Ltd.’s takeover bid, stating Brierley’s offer remained at a level which the directors were unable to recommend.

Mercantile’s offer started at $2.75 per share but was later increased to $3 per share in April and extended the offer to June 12.

Mercantile NZ Ltd. is Kirkcaldie’s third largest shareholder. It operated the Wellington department store that is now being redeveloped by Australian retailer David Jones, which has settled an agreement to take on the assigned lease of Lambton Quay in Wellington and pay $400,000 cash for the name, “Kirkcaldie & Stains”.

David Jones recently announced it will open the doors to its first international store in New Zealand on July 28.

Kirkcaldie & Stains shareholders voted July last year to sell the struggling brand and assign the store lease to David Jones, in a deal worth $400,000 with an option to purchase its fixed assets for $500,000 that it didn’t take up. The move followed a seven-year period of losses for the struggling Wellington company.

Brierley’s offer intended to secure the remaining assets of Kirkcaldie.

Mercantile said in a statement on NZX it has, “not received sufficient acceptances under the offer to satisfy the minimum acceptance condition of the offer and thus the Offer has lapsed in accordance with its terms and conditions and all acceptance forms will be destroyed”.