Aareal Bank in Wiesbaden.
(Photo: PR)
Frankfurt According to financial circles, the private equity investors Advent and Centerbridge are working on a third offer for the Wiesbaden-based real estate financier Aareal Bank. The offer, which may come in in the coming days, could be EUR 33 per share and value the financial institution at more than EUR 2 billion, people entrusted with the transaction told the Handelsblatt.
Unlike the attempt that failed in February, this time the financial investors have the backing of the activist investor Petrus Advisers. Advent, Centerbridge, Aareal and Petrus all declined to comment.
In February, investors had collected only 42.55 percent of the shares and were thus well below the self-imposed threshold of 60 percent. At that time, according to financial circles, the bidders said that a second attempt was not planned. The price at that time was 31 euros per share certificate.
Petrus holds around 18 percent of the shares directly and via derivatives and, according to financial sources, has now made a binding commitment to tender his shares. Overall, such commitments exist for 37 percent of the shares, said a person familiar with the process. According to another insider, the share is already 44 percent. The shareholders wanted to tender their shares and take a total of around 20 percent of the financial investors’ bidding company.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
According to the law, a new start requires a higher price, a different threshold or the commitment of shareholders who had not previously tendered.
The future of the software subsidiary was a contentious issue
Petrus Advisers and another fund – Teleios with a good seven percent of Aareal shares – had also considered the recently failed offer to be far too low. Petrus manager Till Hufnagel had stated in mid-January that the value of the Aareal software subsidiary in particular was not being adequately reflected, and had given drastically higher price expectations.
The future of the software subsidiary is the most important point of contention between the Wiesbaden real estate financier and Petrus Advisers and Teleios. The activist hedge funds had been calling for a spin-off from Aareon for some time because they considered this to be more attractive from a shareholder perspective. Teleios declined to comment on the matter.
Aareal Bank itself had recently shown itself to be more open to parting with its software subsidiary Aareon. “With regard to our target year of 2025, the transfer of Aareon to new owners, whether through a sale or an IPO, is not taboo for us,” said CEO Jochen Klösges when presenting the preliminary annual results.
For 2022 and the coming years, Klösges, who has been in office since mid-September, plans to significantly increase profits. The operating result is expected to grow to between EUR 210 million and EUR 250 million in the current year.
That would be roughly the same as before the pandemic. For 2024, the management is aiming for a further increase to up to 350 million euros. The IT subsidiary Aareon should then also make a significant contribution to this.
The Bloomberg news agency had first reported on the forthcoming further approach by investors.
More: Hedge fund attacks – More than 60 companies are ‘extremely vulnerable’