There were hints of defeat, but now it has really happened: the two financial investors Advent Capital and Centerbridge as well as the Canadian pension fund CPPIB have failed in their attempt to take over Wiesbaden-based Aareal-Bank.

Although they had improved their original bid again and most recently valued the Wiesbaden real estate financier at EUR 1.86 billion, they did not reach their self-imposed minimum acceptance threshold of 60 percent of the Aareal shares.

The takeover bid has thus expired and will be reversed, the bidders announced on Friday evening.

The acceptance period for the offer expired on Wednesday evening.

Tim Kanning

Editor in Business.

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With the failure, Aareal-Bank, which is listed in the M-Dax, is likely to fall into a deep crisis.

Because both the management and the supervisory board of the bank had spoken early and clearly in favor of a takeover by the bidder company.

Important investors, including the activist investors Petrus Advisers and Teleios, who together hold around 20 percent of Aareal, have repeatedly expressed their displeasure.

Major shareholder calls for resignations

So it was clear early on that the takeover would not be a sure-fire success. To improve their chances, two weeks ago they lowered the acceptance threshold from 70 to 60 percent and increased the offer by two euros to EUR 31 per share. Only in November did the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky become one of Aareal's largest shareholders, who reportedly accepted the improved offer from the investors. There has long been a dispute between investors and company management about the IT subsidiary Aareon, which is considered the most valuable part of the group. Advent has held a 30 percent stake in it since 2020.

Petrus Advisers reacted immediately after the announcement of the failure on Friday evening with another statement in which they called, among other things, for the resignation of the Supervisory Board Chairman Hermann Wagner, who only took office in December. CEO Jochen Klösges and CFO Marc Hess called on them to present a revised strategy in the next few weeks or else to resign.

Klösges also spoke up on Friday evening.

"We will now drive the implementation of our successful strategy under our own steam," wrote the CEO in a statement.

“Aareal Bank Group has significant growth potential in all segments, which we intend to consistently exploit over the coming years.

We will, of course, be in intensive dialogue with our investors about this.”

Petrus had repeatedly suggested not selling the bank but instead spinning off Aareon.

The Board of Directors considers this unfeasible.

Apartment owners can use the Aareon software to manage rents, for example.

The bank benefits because many of these customers deposit billions of dollars in rent and security deposits with them, which is a cheap refinancing option for them.

Without Aareon, this would not be the case.