Weidmüller Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH has failed in the attempt to takeover explosion protection specialist R. STAHL. As a result R. STAHL AG remains independent. Gleiss Lutz advised the company on its successful defence against the hostile takeover.
In April 2014 Weidmüller had made a tender offer to purchase all shares of R. STAHL AG at a price of EUR 47.50 per share. The bidder had subsequently increased its offer to EUR 50 per share with the aim of acquiring more than 50 percent of the company’s voting stock. The management and supervisory board of R. STAHL AG, its employee representatives and founding-family shareholders, who hold over 50 percent of voting rights, unanimously rejected a takeover.
With expiry of the offer period on 1 July 2014, Weidmüller has ultimately failed with its takeover attempt. Less than 20 percent of R. STAHL shareholders with voting rights had submitted their shares for sale. As a result, Weidmüller did not achieve the required offer threshold.
R. STAHL was advised by the following team of Gleiss Lutz lawyers: Dr. Martin Schockenhoff, Dr. Christian Cascante (both lead, partner), Dr. Stephanie Lumpp, Dr. Johannes Culmann (all corporate/M&A, Stuttgart), Martin Hitzer (partner, corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Dr. Carsten Walter (corporate/M&A, Frankfurt), Dr. Fabian Walla, Franziska von Hutten (both corporate/M&A, Hamburg), Lucie von Haller (corporate/M&A, Stuttgart).
Gleiss Lutz has extensive expertise in public takeovers (both friendly and hostile) and is regularly involved in major deals – advising buyers, targets or investment banks – with recent examples including Vodafone’s takeover of Kabel Deutschland or the takeover of Celesio AG by US healthcare company McKesson.
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