Paris (AFP)
The French IT giant has succeeded in its takeover bid on Altran, disputed by minority shareholders, with 53.57% of the capital raised, according to an opinion from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) published on Monday.
"In total, Capgemini (...) is able to hold 137,674,545 Altran shares representing as many voting rights, ie 53.57% of the capital and at least 53.41% of the voting rights of this company", said the AMF in its opinion.
By crossing the 50.1% mark it had set for itself, the French juggernaut, which generates more than 13 billion euros in annual turnover - including 35% in North America - and employs 200,000 employees, takes an important step in its race to get their hands on Altran (2.9 billion in turnover, 47,000 employees).
The soap opera of this takeover bid announced last June is however not completely finished: Capgemini must await the result of a judicial decision on the validity of the visa given to the operation by the AMF.
If the Paris Court of Appeal invalidates this visa, Capgemini would be formally forced to file a new compliant offer, delaying the effective takeover.
Capgemini, an IT specialist, is looking for the technological and industrial skills it lacks in the Altran engineering group to ideally position itself in the future and enormous digitalization markets of the industry.
No one disputes the strategic validity of the operation, but certain minority shareholders of Altran considered that the price proposed by Capgemini (14.5 euros per share) was too low.
The American hedge fund Elliott, which had risen to around 14% of Altran's capital during the takeover bid, had said it did not want to sell its shares for less than 18 euros.
© 2020 AFP