Elliott Is Said to Bid $872 Million for Swiss Baker Aryzta
(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. has made a fresh takeover bid for ailing Swiss baking company Aryzta AG, people with knowledge of the matter said. Elliott proposed an offer of about 0.80 Swiss francs per share in recent weeks and reiterated its interest in the past few days, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. That price would represent a 32% premium to Thursday’s close and value Aryzta at about 794 million francs ($872 million), data compiled by Bloomberg show. The U.S. investment firm has conducted due diligence and lined up financing for the potential acquisition, the people said. Aryzta shares rose as much as 21% on Friday, making it the biggest gainer on the benchmark Swiss Performance Index. They were up 17% at 12:46 p.m. in Zurich, giving the company a market value of 703 million francs. Elliott’s proposed offer price is “more than adequate and recommendable” given the challenging environment, Roland French, an analyst at Davy, wrote in an email Friday. “It would mark a significant return” for the company’s activist investors and “clean the psychological slate for many others,” French wrote.
Elliott Is Said to Bid $872 Million for Swiss Baker Aryzta
(Bloomberg) -- Billionaire Paul Singer’s Elliott Management Corp. has made a fresh takeover bid for ailing Swiss baking company Aryzta AG, people with knowledge of the matter said. Elliott proposed an offer of about 0.80 Swiss francs per share in recent weeks and reiterated its interest in the past few days, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. That price would represent a 32% premium to Thursday’s close and value Aryzta at about 794 million francs ($872 million), data compiled by Bloomberg show. The U.S. investment firm has conducted due diligence and lined up financing for the potential acquisition, the people said. Aryzta shares rose as much as 21% on Friday, making it the biggest gainer on the benchmark Swiss Performance Index. They were up 17% at 12:46 p.m. in Zurich, giving the company a market value of 703 million francs. Elliott’s proposed offer price is “more than adequate and recommendable” given the challenging environment, Roland French, an analyst at Davy, wrote in an email Friday. “It would mark a significant return” for the company’s activist investors and “clean the psychological slate for many others,” French wrote.