If the IPOs started again from before last year, the flow of exits remained strong, with around thirty withdrawals and delisting from the Paris listing without counting Euronext Access (the former Free Market). They did not concern only small files, since Iliad and Natixis (read below) were part of the lot, while waiting for Suez: the takeover bid initiated at the end of July by Veolia having ended on January 7, the number two global water and waste company should leave the rating sooner or later, depending on the outcome of this takeover bid.
Threshold lowered to 90%
In addition to the drop in valuation of many companies, due to the health crisis and historically low interest rates which facilitate the financing of public takeover and withdrawal offers, the reason for these numerous exits from the stock market is to be found. alongside the 2019 Pacte law, which reduced the holding threshold from 95% to 90% from which a reference shareholder can initiate a withdrawal procedure. The threshold must however be reached in capital AND in voting rights for a squeeze-out.
This reduction to 90% does not plead for exits on very generous terms for the minority, because it has, for example, become more difficult for an activist to unite other shareholders to obtain a better price. An expert told us in June that the premium for removing a company from the stock market was on average between 35% and 50%, in principle …
The price of Suez raised twice
Unlike Natixis, the shareholders of Iliad, Tessi, Eurogerm and, above all, Suez did not have to complain: for the latter, the price offered by Veolia, and raised twice (to 20 , 50 euros with attached dividend), is double the price of Suez in July 2020, before speculation on the share started.
Launched last March, the plan to exit Bel cheese factories, initiated by Unibel, its parent company (with 95.46% of the capital), should not materialize until after January 10, once the offer closed, which opened on December 24. Unibel had to review its copy, from terms to price, increased from 440 euros to 550 euros, but still 12% below the record price of 2017.
