Apollo drops bid for Spanish industrial testing firm Applus (updated)
17/05/2024 15:27
(Adds more details, Applus value in paragraph 3)
May 17 (Reuters) - US fund Apollo APO.N has withdrawn
its offer to buy Applus APPS.MC , it said on Friday in a filing
to Spain's stock market regulator CNMV, ending a months-long
bidding war for the Spanish industrial testing firm.
Apollo on one side and rival funds I Squared Capital
Advisors and TDR Capital on the other filed two rival tender
offers to acquire the company, kicking off a bidding war.
I Squared Capital Advisors and TDR Capital ultimately
offered 12.78 euros ($13.86) per share, which values Applus at
1.65 billion euros. Apollo had offered 12.51 euros per share.
In a separate document on Friday, CNMV authorised that last
price offered by I Squared and TDR.
For the offer to succeed it needs investors with more than
50% of the shares tender them to I Squared and TDR, the
regulator said.
Since it made its first move to buy Applus last year, Apollo
has bought a 21.85% stake in the company, based on data from
LSEG.
The fund did not say whether it would tender its shares in
Applus to the I Squared and TDR.
An Apollo spokesperson did not immediately respond to a
request for comment.
($1 = 0.9216 euros)
(Reporting by Matteo Allievi, editing by Inti Landauro and Jane
Merriman)
((matteo.allievi@thomsonreuters.com;))