Pieper Ready to Hike Forbo Stake to Block Takeover
Zurich, Switzerland, February 28—-Published reports indicate that Swiss industrialist and major shareholder Michael Pieper is prepared to build his stake in Forbo Holding AG to 33.32 pct to undermine a successful takeover by AFB investment, a subsidiary of CVC Capital Partners Ltd's, for around 705 mln sfr.
Pieper is determined to ensure that the UK-based private equity group will not succeed in acquiring more than a 66 pct stake in Forbo -- the percentage need to successfully control the company.
"If necessary, I will extend my stake in Forbo to 33.32 pct," Pieper said. So far, he has built up a 26 percent stake in Forbo, he told Sonntagszeitung.
If he did indeed do that and only a few shareholders decided to follow Pieper, the takeover would fail. Should this happen, Forbo will have to pay CVC 800,000 sfr franc in compensation. Pieper said he is not prepared to sell his stake in Forbo to the UK bidder, this being "not a matter of price but of philosophy."
"I want Forbo to continue to live on as Forbo. Therefore I will fight any finance jugglers by all available means," he said.
In recent weeks, Pieper repeatedly called for a termination of the bidding process, which, he told Sonntagszeitung, "paralyses the whole company."
Therefore, "transparency is needed," he told bi-weekly Finanz-und Wirtschaft.
On February 17, chief executive officer This Schneider was relieved of his functions after threatening to resign unless the bidding process be halted.
Pieper is outraged by the firing of Schneider and would reinstate him in an intant, he said. "A company without a CEO is like a plane without a pilot. This company is in free fall. This is a catastrophy," he told Sonntagszeitung, adding Schneider is the "ideal" person for the job.
Pieper also said he plans to make Forbo a world leader in a all business sectors within the next three to five years.
Last Friday evening, the Swiss flooring, adhesives, and beltings company said it has given CVC Capital Partners Ltd, a UK-based private equity firm until March 8 to make a formal, definite, takeover offer at 260 sfr a Forbo share. The original deadline for a bid was midnight February 25.
Forbo also said shareholders will vote on the dismantling of the company's 8 pct voting rights restriction at an extraordinary shareholder meeting scheduled March 24.
