Helical board confirms several approaches with offers below fair price
10 JUN 2019
The Board of Helical [LON:HLCL], a UK-based property investment and development company, confirmed, further to media speculation, that it has received several unsolicited approaches from different parties.
To date, all the proposals made have been at a significant discount to Helical's EPRA NAV and therefore in the Board's view did not reflect the company’s fair value.
It was previously reported that an unidentified buyout firm had offered GBP 500m (USD 637m) for Helical and that JPMorgan is advising the company.
EWE stake sale to see indicative offers on 11 June as bidders line up
The sale of a 26% stake in German energy company EWE is to see first-round bids on 11 June, two sources familiar with the situation said.
Parties intending to place bids include a consortium of Deutsche Bank’s [ETR:DBK] DWS [ETR:DWS] and Dutch pension fund PGGM, both sources and a third familiar with the matter added.
Swiss Life Asset Managers has also teamed up with an undisclosed partner to place a bid, the first source said. KKR [NYSE:KKR] has looked at the auction too, this source added.
DWS, EWE, KKR and PGGM declined to comment. Swiss Life did not respond to requests for comment.
OMERS Infrastructure, advised by Goldman Sachs, is expected to bid; Ardian Infrastructure and IFM Investors, which are considering bidding separately for the stake, are also in the running, this news service’s sister publication Inframation reported in March.
Allianz Capital Partners and Macquarie, advised by Morgan Stanley and Macquarie Capital, are believed to have joined forces for the stake in the German energy distribution and telecommunications giant, as per Inframation.
EWE announced in March that interested parties had until 21 March to register their interest with sellside adviser Citi.
Based on a valuation calculated at the time of EWE's asset swap with EnBW [ETR:EBK] in 2016, the 26% stake could have an equity value of up to EUR 1.5bn, according to a previous Mergermarket report.
EWE is selling the 10% stake it holds in itself, while regional municipalities Weser-Ems-Energiebeteiligungen and Energieverband Elbe-Weser Beteiligungsholding are collectively selling 16% of the business.
EWE supplies 1.4 million people with electricity and around 1.8 million people with natural gas through its 207,000km in energy distribution and supply networks. The business also supplies 850,000 customers with telecommunications and IT services in north western Germany. EWE also has operations in Poland, largely related to gas distribution and sales.
The business has said that it aims to invest in fibreoptic broadband expansion across the north west of Germany this year.
In October 2015, EnBW and EWE agreed to a restructuring of their shareholdings that saw EnBW acquire a 74.2% stake in VNG from EWE. In return, EnBW sold its 26% holding in EWE, to EWE itself and EWE-Verband. The deal concluded in 2Q16.
Italy PM says EU budget action could jeopardise national savings: paper
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s ruling parties could expose the nation to market shocks and put its savings at risk if they were not ready to compromise with the European Union over their budget plans, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
In the interview published on Monday, Conte, a technocrat in charge of a populist coalition, repeated his threat to quit if the ruling League and 5-Star parties were not prepared to reach a deal to avert EU disciplinary action over their 2019 budget.
FCA-Renault revival may hinge on Nissan stake cut - sources - https://reut.rs/2WoX01f
PARIS (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Renault SA are looking for ways to resuscitate their collapsed merger plan and secure the approval of the French carmaker’s alliance partner Nissan Motor Co Ltd , according to several sources close to the companies.
Nissan is poised to urge Renault to significantly reduce its 43.4% stake in the Japanese company in return for supporting a FCA-Renault tie-up, two people with knowledge of its thinking also told Reuters.
It is still far from clear whether any concerted effort to revive the complex and politically fraught deal can succeed. FCA Chairman John Elkann abruptly withdrew his $35 billion merger offer in the early hours of June 6 after the French government, Renault’s biggest shareholder, blocked a vote by its board and demanded more time to win Nissan’s backing. Nissan representatives had said they would abstain.
The failure, which FCA and Renault blamed squarely on the French government, deprived both companies of an opportunity to create the world’s third-biggest carmaker with 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) in promised annual synergies.
It also shone a harsh light on Renault’s relations with Nissan, which have gone from frayed to fried since the November arrest of former alliance Chairman Carlos Ghosn, now awaiting trial in Japan on financial misconduct charges he denies.
REVIVAL TALKS
Italian-American FCA - whose brand stable encompasses Fiat runabouts, Jeep SUVs, RAM pickups and Maserati sports cars - has so far turned a deaf ear to suggestions by French officials that its merger proposal could be revisited.
But since the breakdown, Elkann and his French counterpart Jean-Dominique Senard have had talks about reviving the plan that left the Renault chairman and his Chief Executive Thierry Bollore upbeat about that prospect, three alliance sources said.
Renault and a spokesman for FCA declined to comment.
One of Elkann’s senior advisors on the Renault merger bid, Toby Myerson, was expected at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama on Monday for exploratory discussions with top management, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa is likely to attend. Myerson did not respond to a message from Reuters seeking comment.
The meeting comes amid mounting strains that may preclude compromise, after Senard warned Saikawa that Renault was prepared to block key Nissan governance reforms in a dispute over board committees.
Alternatively, the escalating tensions and negotiating positions could give way to a breakthrough, as FCA-Renault’s industrial logic and savings prove hard to ignore.
REBALANCING ACT
Saikawa, who has argued consistently that alliance shareholdings need “rebalancing” to reflect Nissan’s superior size, would press for a substantial reduction to Renault’s stake as part of any agreement, according to the same people. Nissan’s 15% stake in Renault carries no voting rights.
“If FCA are expecting some sort of negotiation, they must be anticipating that request,” said one.
The FCA-Renault deal that Elkann whipped off the table – at least for now – would have seen both companies acquired by a listed Dutch holding company owned 50-50 by current FCA and Renault shareholders, after payment of a 2.5 billion euro special dividend to FCA shareholders.
Paris had secured stronger job guarantees and terms including a cash payment to Renault shareholders, following public criticism that the bid undervalued Renault.
For Nissan, however, the merger would “swap out one small 43% shareholder for a bigger 43% shareholder it doesn’t know,” said a source familiar with top management thinking. Nissan could back the FCA-Renault deal only with a “substantial reduction” in the French carmaker’s holding, they said.
France may not automatically oppose a reduction to the Nissan holding if it secured Renault’s place at the heart of a consolidated group. The government has also said it could reduce its own 15% Renault holding, to the same end.
“All options can be considered,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Figaro after the deal collapsed, when asked about Japanese pressure for Renault to reduce its Nissan stake.
But a senior ministry official declined to elaborate on that possibility. “The proposal is gone,” he said.
FCA may also be prepared to compromise for a tie-up that promises to plug the technology gaps threatening its ability to keep pace with vehicle electrification and emissions compliance.
It has few other potential partners, after talks with Peugeot maker PSA ended inconclusively earlier this year. Estimated FCA-PSA synergies were closer to 3 billion euros, according to one person briefed on the matter.
FCA has already floated a call option that would allow Nissan to increase its 7.5% voting stake in the combined FCA-Renault, another person involved in the talks said.
Nonetheless, anything beyond a token reduction of Renault’s Nissan stake would likely upset the deal valuations and prove unpalatable to its prospective merger partner.
“It’s not something FCA would want to reduce,” the same person said. “It’s an intrinsic part of the value of Renault.”
Elkann and Senard had planned to press ahead with a merger agreement and formal talks over Nissan’s abstention, in the belief that the deal economics would compel it to follow and cooperate, sources close to the Renault board have said.
By blocking that strategy at the eleventh hour, the French state may have handed the Japanese company a new negotiating opportunity. One thing Renault and Nissan can agree on is that any window to revive the merger is likely to be short.
“If there’s going to be a deal it will probably be in weeks rather than months,” one alliance executive said.