Silver Lake submits offer document for Software AG​

Software AG

17/05/2023 18:21

BERLIN, May 17 (Reuters) - Silver Lake officially
submitted its offer document for Software AG  SOWGn.DE  on
Wednesday, almost a month after announcing a 2.4 billion euro
($2.64 billion) takeover bid.
    The financial investor said that shareholders of the
Darmstadt-based group could tender their shares at a price of 32
euros by June 14.
    In its offer document, Silver Lake reiterated that it
intends to delist Software AG as soon as practically possible
after the transaction.
    It has secured 30.1% of the share capital through a binding
agreement with company founder Peter Schnell's Software AG
Foundation, a charitable foundation and longstanding anchor
shareholder, and through purchases on the stock exchange.
    However, a non-binding counteroffer from Rocket Software,
which belongs to private equity firm Bain, plans to put up to 36
euros per share on the table.
    Software AG's management and supervisory boards support
Silver Lake despite Bain's higher offer, drawing criticism from
minority shareholders at the company's annual general meeting on
Wednesday.
    Software AG's chairman of the board of directors, Silver
Lake partner Christian Lucas, was absent from the AGM which was
run by an external lawyer. This is very uncommon for shareholder
meetings in Germany.

($1 = 0.9084 euros)

 (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Emma-Victoria Farr,
Kirsten Donovan)
 ((Madeline.Chambers@thomsonreuters.com))