Dispute with the London hedge fund Davidson Kempner averted for the time being.
(Photo: Reuters)
Frankfurt There is a new twist in the struggle for the billion-dollar takeover of Deutsche Wohnen: The London hedge fund Davidson Kempner has withdrawn its application for an injunction against the Dax group. “We have submitted an application for the preliminary injunction to the court,” said Davidson Kempner lawyer Peter Memminger from the law firm Bub Memminger & Partner to the Handelsblatt. Deutsche Wohnen has now confirmed that the injunction has been withdrawn.
Attorney Memminger justified the step with the fact that the real estate company had assured the financial investor in writing that it no longer wanted to make use of the controversial options. Memminger emphasized, however, that the hedge fund is continuing to follow the matter closely and is reserving further legal steps.
The dispute between the hedge fund and the group has thus been averted for the time being. The London hedge fund applied for an injunction against Deutsche Wohnen at the district court in Berlin at the end of September.
The hedge fund wanted to prevent the number two among the German housing groups from helping the larger Vonovia to acquire a further six percent of Deutsche Wohnen shares through a capital increase and the sale of its own shares. Several German fund companies had also expressed criticism of the approach of the two groups – which the companies, however, reject.
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According to its own information, the hedge fund holds 3.2 percent of Deutsche Wohnen and accuses the board of a conflict of interest in the € 19 billion takeover.
In response, Deutsche Wohnen had declared that it would defend itself against Davidson Kempner’s actions. Since the beginning of last week, however, it has been clear that Vonovia achieved the desired majority in the second attempt even without the capital increase. Reaching the 50 percent threshold is no longer a condition for the completion of the takeover offer.
Davidson Kempner had accused the real estate companies of circumventing their own shareholders and of having insufficiently addressed the conflicts of interest of the board members. The British warned against undermining shareholder rights. “Even if the takeover should go through, we want to make sure that something like this is not possible in the future,” Memminger announced at the time.
Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen will disclose on Thursday exactly how many shares the shareholders offered the Bochum-based group after the offer period had expired on Tuesday night. Vonovia had already announced at the beginning of the week that the total number of Deutsche Wohnen shares that were offered to the Bochumers, that he owns or that he has access to, amounted to around 55.56 percent of the voting rights of Deutsche Wohnen.
More: “Dangerous precedent”: Hedge fund attacks Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen head-on.