Apollo has taken the lead over all other applicants for Applus+, the gigante Spanish of vehicle certification, and has submitted a takeover bid (takeover bid) at 9.5 euros per share, which means valuing the company at 1,226 million euros. The premium is practically none (less than 2%) over the levels at which it was trading before the CNMV suspended its listing this Friday, since the titles of the ITV companies have been discounting a corporate operation on the market for a month and a half, wherever it comes from At 1 pm Applus+ returned to trading with increases of more than 5% above the OPA price.
The first hint that a new one could open up guerra of takeover bids on the Spanish stock market was at the beginning of May, with Applus+ shares trading at around 7.5 euros. Since then, it has appreciated more than 22% and so far this year it has risen to almost 42% on the Continuous Market.
The US private equity fund, very active on the national territory in different operations such as the purchase of 49% of Primafrio last year (which did not finally go public) or in the real estate market, has presented through the company Manzana Spain Bidco the offer that has the support of the company’s council, according to the document that the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) has made public this afternoon. Thus, Apollo takes the lead over other suitors that have shown their interest in the company, such as Apax, TLDR and I Squared, who are also finalizing their bid for the company, which may encourage a oops war for the signature
Apollo puts 9.5 euros per share on the table in a voluntary offer that seeks to exclude from the Spanish Stock Market a company that would celebrate a decade as a listed company next year. As “consideration”, it indicates the relevant fact, The dividend that Applus+ has already approved and announced for July 6 will not be subtracted from this price, something that is usually common in this type of operation. The shareholders of the ITVs firm will then receive 0.16 euros per share next week without prejudice to the fact that they can go to the OPA and collect 9.5 euros for each company title.
Despite of rally carried out by Applus+ in the last year, the offer is made with a premium of 36.8% over the weighted average price of the firm, which is 6.94 euros, according to the relevant fact. It must now be the CNMV that evaluates whether it is a fair price.