Advantech announced on Monday its intention to file a proposed public buyout offer for Aures, the manufacturer of touch-sensitive point-of-sale terminals, whose shares were suspended on the Paris Bourse.

The industrial group said it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Aures and its founder and main shareholder Patrick Cathala with a view to financing the transaction through the acquisition of a block of shares.

The transaction is expected to involve the issue of new convertible bonds to Advantech, offered in two tranches of 2.5 million shares each.

This transaction is to be accompanied by the off-market acquisition by Advantech of all 1.4 million existing shares held by Patrick Cathala, at a unit price of 6.31 euros.

This will be followed by a proposed mandatory cash tender offer for all Aures shares not already held by Advantech, at the same price of 6.31 euros.

This price represents a premium of around 63% on the closing price of Aures shares on April 17 (i.e. 3.87 euros).

Should the threshold of 90% of the share capital and voting rights be crossed at the end of the offer, Advantech would request the implementation of a delisting procedure.

Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.