(BFM Bourse) – The company announced on Friday that it was raising its price per share to 32.25 pounds against 31 pounds previously. She hopes to complete the transaction early next year.
To remove its British subsidiary Aveva from the London Stock Exchange, Schneider Electric has decided to be a little more generous with minority shareholders.
The industrial group announced Friday the raising of the price of its takeover bid to 32.25 pounds sterling per share, against 31 pounds during its first proposal, at the end of September, or 4% more.
This new price values the share capital of Aveva at 9.86 billion pounds and brings the enterprise value (which includes, in addition to the capital, the debt) to 10.6 billion pounds, or 12 billion euros. This represents a multiple of 28.9 times adjusted operating income for the whole of the 2021-2022 financial year, which ended last March.
To acquire the 41% of the capital it lacks, Schneider Electric will have to pay around 4.6 billion euros.
A transaction to be completed in early 2023
This “final” offer was recommended by Aveva’s committee of independent directors, Schneider Electric said. Aveva shareholders will meet a week later than planned, on November 25 instead of November 17, to approve this new offer. The group hopes to finalize the transaction in the first quarter of 2023.
Schneider Electric became Aveva’s majority shareholder in 2018. In September, it decided to increase the capital of its subsidiary to 100% in order to “remove barriers” in its cooperation with the British group, increase “operational flexibility”, improve customer coverage and strengthen cooperation in R&D, explained Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the group’s CEO, during a conference with financial analysts.
Financial analysts had then deemed the price offered by Schneider Electric a little low. “The proposed price is fair but a little opportunistic, a price of 33-35 pounds per share would have been more convincing,” said Nicholas Green, analyst at Bernstein.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the Schneider Electric share gained 1.1% while the Aveva share in London gained 0.7%.
Julien Marion – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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