The management board of aleo solar has announced that some of the key shareholders, which together hold almost 40% of aleo solar’s share capital, have signed agreements to sell their shares to Robert Bosch GmbH.
The purchase price of each share is set at €9 in cash; this is 43% above the weighted average price of each aleo share in XETRA trading during the three months preceding this announcement, where the price was set at €6.31.
The selling shareholders consist of a group of investors including Marius Eriksen, the company’s initiator and cofounder, as well as a company closely associated with Hannover Finanz, a financial investor in aleo solar since 2005.
Bosch intends to submit a suitable voluntary public takeover offer to the shareholders of aleo solar, with the aim of acquiring its remaining shares in connection with its acquisition of close to 40% of the shares of aleo solar.
Jakobus Smit, also cofounder and chairman of aleo solar’s management board, said of the deal, “We are ideally suited for supplementing its current activities in photovoltaics, which are essentially rooted in its acquisition of ersol Solar Energy AG in 2008.”
Cofounder Eriksen said, “This confirms the strategy we’ve been pursuing for years. Bosch’s decision to continue expanding the Prenzlau production site, as well as the Oldenburg location for both the German and international sales organization and marketing, under the present management constitutes a special recognition of the performance of all our employees and Management Board members.”
Bosch has also recently entered into an agreement with the shareholders of Johanna Solar Technology to acquire a majority stake in the company; aleo solar will now no longer pursue its plan to purchase additional shares in Johanna Solar Technology if the voluntary public takeover offer and the acquisition agreements are executed.
This transaction is subject to the formal proviso that antitrust authorities approve it and that the minimum acquisition threshold of possibly 75%, which shall be fixed in the voluntary public takeover offer, is reached.
