Schneider Electric in sweetened £10bn final offer for Aveva
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Schneider Electric in honed £10bn final offer for Aveva: French companies offer to pay 3225p for every share it doesn’t already own, up 3100p
A French company looking to acquire Aveva has softened its takeover offer under pressure from other investors.
Conglomerate Schneider Electric, which already owns 59 percent of industrial software company FTSE100, has offered to pay 3,225 pence in cash for every Aveva share it does not already own, compared to its previous offer of 3,100 pence.
The offer is a 47 percent premium to the company’s closing price on August 23, the day before Schneider’s first offer was announced, and values the entire company at around £9.9 billion. Schneider said the offer was final.
Raising the Bar: Conglomerate Schneider Electric Has Offered to Pay 3225p Cash for Every Aveva Share It Doesn’t Already Own
Aveva stock rose 0.8 percent, or 24p, to 3169p after the news. The increased offer came after several of Aveva’s minority investors threatened to reject the takeover offer.
Hedge fund Davidson Kempner, which owns 3.8 percent of the company, said earlier this week it had “deep concerns” about the deal and accused Schneider boss Peter Herweck of “poor communication.”
Other shareholders, including M&G Investments and Canadian firm Mawer, also opposed the acquisition because it was “opportunistic” and sought to capitalize on weakness in Aveva’s share price, which fell 34 percent over the year before the offer. was announced in late August.
The opposition threatens to undermine Schneider’s attack on the company, as it needs more than 75 percent of minority shareholders’ support for the deal to go through.