“The supervisory board and executive board of Accell Group are carefully reviewing and considering all aspects of the proposal, together with their financial and legal advisors,” said Accell.

“Accell Group will take into account the interests of all its stakeholders.

“There can be no assurance any transaction will result from these discussions.”

Pon Holdings said it made a non-binding, conditional proposal to combine Accell Group with its own bicycle activities.

It is proposing an offer for Accell Group shares at €32.72 per share in cash, including the 2016 proposed dividend of €0.72.

Accell shares rose more than 19% to around €31.73, according to Bloomberg data.

Pon said its offer represented a premium of 31% to Accell’s closing share price on March 16, 2017, the day prior to Pon’s initial approach to Accell Group and a premium of 23% to Accell Group’s all-time high closing share price of €26.54 per share recorded on April 10.

“After a detailed assessment of the strategy and performance of Accell Group, Pon Holdings has concluded there is an excellent strategic fit between the bike activities of both companies with benefits for all stakeholders,” said Pon.

“The combination results in the world’s leading global bicycle company, with headquarters in the Netherlands and with sufficient scale to be the long term winner in the industry.”

Pon Holdings is one of the Netherlands’ biggest family businesses and operates in a large number of markets including bicycles, private and commercial vehicles, forklift trucks, earthmoving machinery, generators and the shipping industry.

Pon expects to sell about 800,000 bikes in 2017 and make total revenue of about €700 million.