LONDON (Reuters) – Aveva’s minority shareholders on Friday approved a takeover bid from the group’s majority shareholder, France’s Schneider Electric, which values the British industrial software provider at around 9.86 billion pounds ( around 11.5 billion euros).
Schneider, which already owns 59% of Aveva’s capital, raised its takeover offer in mid-November to 32.25 pounds per share (compared to 31.0 pounds in its initial offer launched in September) in the face of opposition from several shareholders who had threatened not to tender their shares to the offer.
This was approved by 83.49% of the votes cast on Friday, Aveva said in a statement.
“Aveva’s minority shareholders voted by the required majority in favor of the improved offer,” the French group said in a statement.
The completion of the operation is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023 subject to its validation by the competent legal authorities, he added.
Schneider Electric, whose business spans electrical components, energy management and industrial automation systems, has been Aveva’s majority shareholder since 2017.
The French group had then paid three billion pounds to acquire the majority of the capital of the company, which develops products used to design and manage oil platforms, ships and chemical factories.
When it filed its offer for the balance of Aveva’s capital in September, Schneider Electric indicated that it wanted Aveva to remain a separate legal entity with its own board of directors.
(Written by Paul Sandle, French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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