Austrian sensor specialist AMS will publish the result of its takeover bid for German lighting group Osram on Friday, a company spokesman said ahead of a public holiday in Germany on Thursday.
AMS had secured 19.99% of Osram shares through direct purchases plus 9.2% as part of the tender offer, shortly before the offer expired on Tuesday. It has set a 62.5% threshold for the offer to be successful.
The Austrian group is engaged in a bidding war with a private equity consortium. But the chances of Bain and Advent winning the battle for AMS are seen as slim, as AMS could easily secure a blocking minority of 25%.
After AMS’ offer expired the company could resume buying more shares in the market.
If AMS bought more than 30% of Osram’s shares it would have to make a mandatory takeover offer. In this event, it would not be bound by the 12-month ban on making a new voluntary takeover offer.
AMS upped its bid to 4.5 billion euros ($4.9 billion) last week after private equity group Bain Capital signaled it could team up with U.S. firm Advent to beat AMS’s initial offer of 4.3 billion euros. Bain and Advent have made no further move so far.
Source: Reuters.com