Haldex’s board of directors withdraws its support of Knorr-Bremses bid. The decision is based on the assessment that the probability is very low that the deal will be approved by the competition authorities, and the damage that the company would continue to suffer under an in-depth investigation.
It is clear from a press release.
According to Haldex, expresses the european competition authority serious doubts in six of the eight product areas in which Haldex operates in.
”Haldex board of directors is of the weight of evidence assessment that the probability of Knorr-Bremse to obtain the necessary competition clearances is very low and therefore choose to no longer assist the Knorr-Bremse in the work with the merger clearance from the authorities. The board will also disagree that the Board approve an extension of the Knorr-Bremses bud”, is called it in the press release.
”Haldex has been in bud for a year already, and many customers have been hesitant because of our uncertain ownership situation. A number of these customers have projects where there is still a chance for us to get back into the process. A further extension would definitely destroy the possibility”, says Åke Bengtsson, acting president and ceo for Haldex, in a written comment.
Knorr-Bremses bid of sek 125 per Haldex share was published in the beginning of september 2016 and are conditional upon obtaining a licence from the relevant competition authorities. Haldex’s board of directors recommended the Haldex shareholders to accept the bid, if and when the relevant permissions obtained.
According to the Holdings owned Knorr-Bremse 14,92% of Haldex as per september 23, 2016. Ägardatatjänsten writes, however, that the data point is manually adjusted to the date, since Holdings ”has reason to believe that we may not be in complete ägardata in our regular updates for this owner of this company”.
Knorr-Bremses last year, defeated budrival ZF Friedrichshafen had 17.1 per cent of Haldexaktierna as of may 31, according to the Holdings, whose task context is based on the Haldex website.
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