GMS shares surged 23.4% in premarket trading on Friday.
Home Depot has made an offer for GMS Inc., potentially setting off a bidding war with QXO Inc. which this week made a $5 billion offer for the building-products distributor, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The offer from Home Depot, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, is for an undetermined sum, the Journal said, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
The offer comes as QXO is proposing to buy Tucker, Georgia-based GMS for $95.20 per share in cash, according to a statement Wednesday. GMS confirmed it received the unsolicited proposal from QXO, and said its board will evaluate the offer. GMS closed Wednesday at $81.01 per share and finished last week at $76.03.
Both Home Depot and QXO are seeking to expand their share of the market for construction supplies and tools, betting a bigger entity with better technology can win business from more contractors, the Journal said.