Both Barclays and the Wall Street Journal travel question marks around what that might be suitable buyers, at least in the industry, to the Hexagon.
It is apparent, of and a commentary from the bank’s verkstadsanalytiker, published on Thursday morning, and a Wall Street Journal-chronicle, which was published on Wednesday night.
Barclays say they have received many questions from investors about Siemens, ABB or Schneider could be thought of as potential buyers, and go through the companies one at a time.
- Siemens has bought the software company for 10 billion dollars since 2007, and is reported to now be engaged in the process of integrating the latest purchase.
- ABB indicated to Barclays on a conference with its new ”chief digital officer” that there may be a question if more add-on acquisitions, after it recently purchased B&R, and that the company will continue to develop partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Dassault Systèmes and PTC. Barclays also points out that ABB is an event, bought a 3D inspection companies in February, Spanish NUB3D – ”so we would be surprised by a 20-miljarderdollarsaffär at this stage”.
- Schneider has bought the company for 19 billion since 2002 and is now in a consolidation phase. The company is certainly interested to expand their mjukvaruaktiviteter – underlined, of the two try to merge their own ones with the Avevas – but Barclays would be surprised if Scheiderledningen would set in motion a process for such a large acquisition as the Hexagon would mean, and summarizes the about the possible buyers of the Swedish measurement technology company:
”In order to generate a reasonable return on an investment of 20 billion dollars would a buyer need to increase Hexagon’s operating earnings (ebitda) significantly from the current level of 1.1 billion u.s. dollars (31 percent of sales in 2016).”
The Wall Street Journal mentions GE, Honeywell, Siemens and ABB among the possible buyers, and describes the Hexagon, which, while successful with its many acquisitions, but thus not necessarily myself attractive as acquisition targets. Bolagsportföljen in the Hexagon is designated as a mix of hardware and software, where synergies between software and ”legacy”-verkstadsdelar can be elusive.
”Above all, it is the underlying performance of the company built through the acquisition notoriously difficult to discern,” writes the magazine, and mentions that the software company is notorious for redovisningstveksamheter on when revenue is booked. Insideråtalet against Ola Rollén ”adds a level of unpredictability”, named it on, whereupon a reasoning similar to the Barclays if the buyers focus on to streamline and focus take – this makes it less likely that they want to go in on risky acquisitions.
Siemens ceo Joe Kaeser is said to be keen to prove to investors that the company is more focused and tillräkneligt than has been the case historically, and to buy Hexagon would, according to the WSJ risk Siemens with hard efforts earned reputation for financial discipline.
ABB is denoted then as of Hexagon, perhaps the most likely buyers, and points out that the industry – and automationskoncernen last year appointed a former Ciscochef to its first ”chief digital officer” to approach the industry in a more technologically advanced ”tech-savvy”, vis.
”But,” writes the Wall Street Journal, ”the second-largest shareholder and member of the board since February – is Cevian Capital, an activist who prefer focus in front of the conglomerate.”
The conclusion is that a not a buyer (”dark horse”), perhaps, is Hexagon’s main hope.
Tradingportalen/Agency Directly.
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