Balda shareholders to vote on Stevanato offer in January

Photo by Balda AG Moulding at Balda AG's US operations in California.

The management and supervisory boards of Balda, the German medical moulder at the centre of a takeover battle, have accepted an €80m binding offer made by Stevanato of Italy on 14 December.

Stevanato’s offer is higher than the €74m offer from Heitkamp & Thumann Group of Germany, which was approved by shareholders at Balda’s AGM on 30 November and 1 December. Despite the shareholder vote, Balda has so far not accepted H&T’s offer and Stevanato was given until 14 December to carry out due diligence and make its binding offer.

“The Management Board and the Supervisory Board have reviewed the offer by Stevanato in detail and, taking all facts into account, regard the offer by Stevanato preferable to the offer by H&T,” Balda said in a statement on 15 December.

The management board is planning to convene an extraordinary General Meeting for shareholders to vote on Stevanato’s offer. This EGM is expected to take place on 29 January 2016 in Hannover. Like H&T’s offer, Stevanato has proposed to buy all operating units of the Balda Group: Balda Medical GmbH & Co KG in Germany; Balda C Brewer, Inc and Balda Precision, Inc, both located in California, USA; Balda Medical Systems SRL, Romania; and further assets.

Balda said: “Moreover, Stevanato also offers to keep all employees of the operating units and take over staff of Balda AG. Contrary to H&T, Stevanato intends to also purchase the ‘Balda’ brand and any associated (intangible) assets.”

H&T has not yet decided if it will increase its €74m offer, said Nils Hubert, director of human resources and public affairs at H&T. Speaking to Plastics News Europe, he said H&T will wait for more details about Stevanato’s offer to be released by Balda ahead of the EGM.

Hubert referred to an earlier statement issued by Balda on 14 December, in which it said: “The binding offer by Stevanato is oriented towards the bid by H&T, but in part contains deviating guarantees and indemnities of the sellers.”

Hubert said: “It will be interesting to see if our offer and Stevanato’s offer are really comparable, or if the Stevanato offer has higher risks for shareholders.”