Bain Capital has increased its offer for SoftwareOne Holding AG to as much as 3.3 billion Swiss francs ($3.8 billion), after an earlier bid was rejected by the IT services provider’s board.
(Bloomberg) — Bain Capital has increased its offer for SoftwareOne Holding AG to as much as 3.3 billion Swiss francs ($3.8 billion), after an earlier bid was rejected by the IT services provider’s board.
The private equity firm has tabled a new indicative proposal in a range of 19.50 francs to 20.50 francs, SoftwareOne said in a statement on Thursday confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report.
At the top end, that’s around a 48% premium to SoftwareOne’s closing price on May 30, the last trading day before Bain submitted its initial indicative offer of 18.50 francs a share.
SoftwareOne’s founding shareholders, including Daniel von Stockar, who together own roughly 29% of the company, backed Bain’s earlier offer. But its board rejected that proposal in June, saying it significantly undervalued SoftwareOne.
“In line with its fiduciary duty, the board is assessing the revised proposal and will make a recommendation that it believes is in the best interest of all shareholders,” SoftwareOne said in its statement.
Shares in SoftwareOne rose as much as 5.1% on Thursday. The stock was up 3% at 18.72 francs at 4:41 p.m. in Zurich, giving the company a market value of roughly 3 billion francs. A representative for Bain declined to comment.
Based in Stans, Switzerland, SoftwareOne advises companies on software purchases and partners with providers such as Amazon Web Services, Adobe Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. It’s also among the largest resellers of Microsoft Corp. software licenses.
Bain has been seeking to do a deal for a European technology company and this year battled Silver Lake Management for Germany’s Software AG before dropping its pursuit. In that fight, some investors have criticized Software AG’s management for backing Silver Lake’s bid even though Bain offered a higher price.
–With assistance from Agatha Cantrill and Eyk Henning.
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