Austrian crane specialist Palfinger Marine has decided not to complete the planned acquisition of the Norwegian cranes and offshore access systems provider TTS Group.
The pair announced in June this year that Palfinger would offer NOK 5.60 in cash for one TTS share in the event of a positive due diligence outcome. The acquisition was expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter this year, but latest in January 2017.
Palfinger Marine officially submitted an offer to acquire TTS Group in July.
According to TTS’ statement on Monday, one of the closing conditions of the acquisition was that Palfinger Marine had to get acceptances for at least 90 per cent of the TTS shares on a fully diluted basis. At the expiry of the acceptance period at 16:30 on 12(th) August 2016 this condition was not fulfilled, TTS said.
TTS also said that shareholders that have accepted the offer are released from their acceptances, and the same applies to bondholders that have entered into separate undertakings towards Palfinger.
“We are surprised that the transaction will not be completed. We will now fully concentrate our energy on execute executing our stand-alone strategy. Short term focus will be on operational efficiency,” says Toril Eidesvik , CEO of TTS Group.
“This means that the strategic process which was announced 12(th) February 2015 has come to an end. In the coming months, we will focus on refining our strategy and action plans for 2017 and beyond. Our fully committed TTS colleagues possess unique competence and knowledge and I am sure that they will do their very best to fulfill TTS Group’s potential. The world economy indicates some rough seas ahead, which makes it even more important than ever to focus on good work processes and efficient value chains,” says Eidesvik.