2023-06-13 17:25:40
München The financial investor Silver Lake initially intends to forego a majority stake when it joins the Darmstadt-based Software AG. In view of the wait-and-see attitude of shareholders, the US investment company no longer ties its €2.36 billion offer to the condition of acquiring more than 50 percent of the shares, according to a mandatory publication on Tuesday.
One day before the deadline, Silver Lake was still a long way from the desired majority. By Tuesday afternoon, the investor had only secured 30.5 percent of the shares, despite the support of Software AG management.
If the condition is waived, the offer is automatically extended by two weeks until June 28th. The majority of Silver Lake’s shares come from company founder Peter Schnell’s Software AG Foundation, which sold Silver Lake a 25 percent stake.
Many other investors had apparently waited to see whether the financial investor Bain Capital would actually implement the counter-offer announced by its subsidiary Rocket Software. Rocket’s offer, which was announced a month ago, is two euros higher than Silver Lake’s offer at EUR 34 per Software AG share. The Darmstadt company’s paper rose 0.75 percent on the stock exchange to EUR 33.24 on Tuesday.
According to their own statements, Bain Capital and Rocket together hold ten percent of Software AG, but have so far not followed up their words with action. Software AG’s management had sided with Silver Lake because they feared the company’s independence if it were sold to its competitor Rocket.
Silver Lake is now apparently hoping to be able to increase its stake to a majority at a later date. The technology investor from California can exchange a convertible bond for ten percent of Software AG shares. In addition, many index funds (ETFs) are only allowed to sell their blocks of shares when the takeover is dry.
More: Silver Lake officially submits takeover bid for Software AG
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