Volkswagen Declares Scania Buyout Unconditional with Required Shares

The deal fell short the first time around, but with a deadline extension on VWs cash offer on Scania shares, Volkswagen feels all parties are walking away with a good deal.

After being rejected by several smaller stockholders and not reaching its requirement of more than 90% of all shares by the April 25 deadline, Volkswagen has now reached an agreement with shareholders to tender enough shares of Scania to Volkswagen to call the deal fulfilled.

On February 21, 2014, Volkswagen announced a public offer to the shareholders of Scania to tender all shares in Scania to Volkswagen at a price of SEK 200 in cash per share, regardless of share class. As of today, May 13, the shares tendered, together with the shares already held or otherwise controlled by Volkswagen, amount to in aggregate 723,733,927 shares in Scania, comprising 390,197,071 "A" shares and 333,536,856 "B" shares, corresponding to 90.47% of the shares and 96.26% of the voting rights in Scania.

Thus, Volkswagen announced today that all conditions for completion of the offer have been fulfilled. Accordingly, the offer has been declared unconditional in all respects and Volkswagen will complete the acquisition of the shares tendered; settlement for shares tendered up until May 12 is expected to take place on or around May 19. The extended acceptance period allows remaining shareholders of Scania to accept the offer until May 16 at 5:00 pm (CET). Settlement for shares tendered after May 12 is expected to take place on or around May 27. Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, commented on the deal.:

We are pleased that Scania shareholders accepted our highly attractive offer to the necessary extent. This is good news for the Volkswagen Group as a whole, as we can now take the next logical and consistent step in our strategy to strengthen the operational integration between Scania, MAN and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles to create a leading commercial vehicles group. The success of the offer is also good news for Scania, as the company will be a core element of the integrated commercial vehicles group which will open up new opportunities for all parties involved. Not least, it is good news for Scania’s employees, as our agreement with Scania trade unions to safeguard jobs and locations in Sweden will now come into effect and will be implemented swiftly.

Volkswagen will initiate compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares in Scania as well as promote a delisting of Scania’s shares from NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.

Image: Scania via Facebook