Axens Bids to Take Over Heurtey
French engineering and technology provider Axens has filed a proposed voluntary takeover bid with the French financial markets regulator AMF to acquire rival firm Heurtey Petrochem. Axens, a wholly owned subsidiary of IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN), is partnering with IFP Investissements, also a wholly owned subsidiary of IFPEN, which already holds 36% of Heurtey’s share capital. The Paris-headquartered firm is offering €23 per share in cash for all non-partnership shares of Heurtey, representing a 26% premium over the closing price of €18 on Oct. 10.
If the shares held by Heurtey’s shareholders, other than the partnership, do not represent more than 5% of the share capital following the bid, Axens will seek to squeeze out the shares not owned by the partnership, paying an additional €1 per share to those shareholders who have accepted its bid. Also headquartered in Paris, Heurtey Petrochem is an international oil and gas engineering group operating in two sectors; process furnaces for refining, petrochemicals and hydrogen production; and natural gas treatment. The group had revenues of €420 million in 2015 and employs around 1,000 people.
The board of directors of both IFPEN and Axens approved the bid proposal on Oct. 11. Should it proceed, the merger will create a prime industrial technology group specializing in clean fuels and environmentally friendly processes and be present in the refining and petrochemical segments as well as the processing of natural gas, biofuels and renewable chemical intermediates. It will also boost both companies’ international presence.
