Rumours from Betaville, a financial blog created by Ben Harrington, mentions that
Evonik actually approached DSM last week with an indicative offer of around EURO 60 a share.
My views:
1. I have met Ben Harrington before. I know he has good sources and while he may not get his stories proved right all the time, I believe he does check stuff before going to print
2. DSM is Dutch registered whcih means that a bid would have to be friendly or DSM could play the stichting card to block a bid (like what happened to Slim when he tried to get KPN)
3. In the UK abrupt share price movements , in theory , trigger a disclosure by the company. Abrupt means 10pct above lowest share price or 5pct in the course of a single day.
4. In Holland however such rule is not clear cut and I do not believe DSM will be required to disclose based on share price movement. In continental jurisdictions the bar to get a company to disclose or respond to rumours is factual . Meaning that the company is required to validate a rumour only if the rumour is considered a leak by the company themselves. Further, even in the UK, the day price movement rule of 5pct has gaps. For example the rumour of takeover approach for Dana Petroleum in 2010, moved the price on the day by 9pct and there was no company disclosure for 7 days because the company was not “actively considering” a merger.