Paris (AFP)

The IT giant Capgemini can finally take control of the technology group Altran, eight months after the announcement of a friendly takeover upset by a bronca of minority shareholders.

The Association of minority shareholders (Adam) of Colette Neuville was dismissed Friday by the Paris Court of Appeal of its request to cancel the visa for the operation, which had been issued by the Autorité des Marchés Financiers.

"This is good news for Capgemini and for Altran," said Paul Hermelin, President and CEO of Capgemini, to reporters.

With the 54.17% already held by Capgemini, "we will now exercise control of Altran and thus form a group of 17 billion euros in turnover and more than 270,000 employees", welcomed M Hermelin.

"We are going to work with Altran to see how (...) to bring our joint offers for a smart industry to customers," said Aiman ​​Azzat, the dolphin of Paul Hermelin who is due to take over as general manager of the group in May. .

The stock market battle is not yet over, however, as Capgemini hopes to further increase its stake in Altran.

As agreed in the event of a judicial green light, Capgemini can resume its takeover bid for two weeks at a price of 14.5 euros per share, already that in force in the first phase of the operation.

"The evolution of the markets makes this offer even more attractive (... it's almost if I dare say unique enough" for the shareholders who still hold Altran shares, said Aiman ​​Azzat.

"The share price before the announcement of our offer was 11.47 euros, since the prices of comparable companies have fallen by 30%" due to the coronavirus crisis, he said.

Asked about a possible hope of achieving enough titles to be able to remove Altran from the list, Aiman ​​Azzat said that "nothing was ever impossible".

"It would be reasonable, but not everything is reasonable in this case," said Paul Hermelin.

One of the main opponents of the takeover bid, the hedge fund Elliott did not react after the decision of the Paris court of appeal.

The American fund, convinced that it could get a better price from Capgemini by thwarting its offer, had risen at the beginning of 2020 to 14% of Altran's capital.

- Revise takeover regulations -

But Colette Neuville, the president of Adam, admitted in any case on Friday that the shareholders of Altran now had an interest in contributing their shares.

"In this atmosphere of stock market crash, I think shareholders have an interest in bringing their shares" to Capgemini, she told AFP.

The president of Adam however hoped that the case could lead to a review of the current regulations on takeover bids, in particular with regard to independent expert opinions on the value of the target company.

"It is still better when there is a contradictory dialogue" between two experts, she said.

Capgemini, the French IT services juggernaut, is looking in Altran for the technological and industrial skills it lacks in order to ideally position itself in the future and enormous digitalization markets of the industry.

Capgemini achieved turnover of 14.13 billion euros in 2019, of which 32% in North America.

Altran, for its part, achieved 3.22 billion euros in revenue in 2019.

The marriage of these two international champions will create a group among the top five in the industry, according to Capgemini.

© 2020 AFP