According to the Bloomberg news agency, the Swedish company Cevian is offering around 23.4 million shares at a price of EUR 5.15 per note.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf After the Swedish investment fund Cevian Capital, as a major shareholder of Thyssen-Krupp, had to accept severe price losses for several years, the investor is now selling almost all of its stake in the industrial group. As the fund announced on Tuesday at the request of the Reuters news agency, the stake after the most recent sale is less than one percent.
At times, Cevian was invested with a share package of around 18 percent in Thyssen-Krupp and was only just behind the largest shareholder, the non-profit Alfried Krupp von Bohlen and Halbach Foundation with 21 percent.
At the end of last year, Cevian had sold almost half of its shares – and made heavy losses in the process. Cevian joined the group in 2013 at prices between 16 and 18 euros. At the first major sale at the end of last year, the price had already dropped to around EUR 11.30.
Thyssen-Krupp: Other shareholders are becoming more important
Now Cevian had to accept another strong discount. With the sale, Thyssen-Krupp stock continued to fall. On Tuesday afternoon, the stock was trading at a discount of more than 4.5 percent, close to the placement price of EUR 5.15. This made it one of the weakest stocks in the MDax and was only a third of the price Cevian entered almost ten years ago.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The Reuters news agency quoted the investment fund as saying that the extensive exit was a decision as part of a regular portfolio adjustment. In fact, Cevian had been struggling with his involvement with Thyssen-Krupp for a long time after the fund, known for its activist approach, had repeatedly failed with its demands from management.
For example, Cevian representatives had repeatedly demanded the distribution of a special dividend, which led to the dismissal of the then CEO Guido Kerkhoff in 2019, who refused this demand.
The CEO of Thyssen-Krupp presented the annual figures last Thursday in Essen.
(Photo: Reuters)
In the end, however, the deterioration in economic conditions as a result of the corona pandemic did not allow for a dividend. Shortly thereafter, the then Cevian representative on the supervisory board, Jens Tischendorf, had to vacate his post. Since then, the Swiss Cevian partner Friederike Helfer, whose work is generally appreciated by other members of the supervisory board, has represented the fund on the supervisory board.
But with the renewed reduction in Cevian’s share, the personnel is likely to be in question. Investors such as the US fund Harris (around eight percent) or the Swedish national fund (around seven percent), on the other hand, are gaining in importance.
More: Thyssen Krupp boss Martina Merz: “We can put the restructuring phase behind us”