Palfinger Marine submits takeover bid for TTS Group

Austrian marine crane specialist Palfinger Marine has officially submitted an offer to acquire the Norwegian cranes and offshore access systems provider TTS Group.

TTS Group said on Monday that Oslo Børs, in the capacity of the takeover supervisory authority, has approved an offer for acquisition of shares in TTS Group made by Palfinger Marine.

The company said that the offer stands at NOK 5.60 ($0.66) per share and the offer period will last until August 12 at 16:30 CET. The offer for the acquisition of shares is subject to extension.

As announced on June 19, the board of TTS has unanimously recommended that shareholders accept the offer. In total, and on a fully diluted basis, shareholders, and bondholders representing 66.3 percent of the shares in TTS support the offer by having pre-accepted the offer subject to customary conditions.

To remind, Palfinger announced last month its intention of acquiring the company for a share price identical to the official offer approved on Monday.

Subject to the positive outcome of the due diligence audit and the official approvals, the intended acquisition is expected to be finalized in the fourth quarter this year, but latest in January 2017. The offer price values the total share capital of TTS Group ASA on a fully diluted basis at approximately NOK 600 million ($71 million).

Herbert Ortner, CEO of Palfinger, said that the eventual acquisition of TTS with the already completed acquisition of Harding would place Palfinger Marine amongst the global top three ship equipment suppliers.