Hexagon Will Propose to Acquire Veripos in Public Voluntary Offer
Hexagon has announced it will offer NOK 28 in cash per share in positioning company Veripos in a public voluntary offer:
- Hexagon will make a voluntary offer of NOK 28 in cash per share of Veripos, a company listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange
- The voluntary offer represents a premium of 44 per cent to Veripos’ volume weighed average stock price during the three month period up to and including 11 October 2013
- The offer will require acceptance from shareholders representing a minimum of 90 per cent of the Veripos share capital and voting rights, and certain other customary conditions for public voluntary offers
- A five=week offer acceptance period will start shortly following the approval of an offer document by the Oslo Stock Exchange
According to the announcement, the Board of Directors of Hexagon AB has decided that Hexagon, directly or through a wholly owned subsidiary, will present to the shareholders of Veripos Inc., a voluntary offer of NOK 28 in cash per share for all outstanding shares of Veripos.
The offer price represents a premium of 21.7 per cent to the last traded price for Veripos of NOK 23, and a premium of 28.1 per cent, 43.6 per cent, 47.8 per cent and 46.3 per cent to the volume weighted average share prices (source: Bloomberg) for the one, three, six and twelve month periods, respectively, that ended on October 11.
On September 30, Hexagon contacted the Board of Directors of Veripos with a proposal of Hexagon making a voluntary offer of NOK 28 for all of the outstanding shares of Veripos, subject to due diligence and certain other conditions. On October 4, Veripos and Hexagon entered into a due diligence agreement where Hexagon was granted access to conduct a limited due diligence review on an exclusive basis. Such due diligence was concluded to Hexagon’s satisfaction on October 12.
Ola Rollén, President and Chief Executive Officer of Hexagon, said, “It is a good strategic fit between Hexagon and Veripos where Hexagon will provide, state of the art, positioning technology to Veripos as well as future growth via Hexagon’s onshore markets. Veripos has, in turn, built up a strong position in the offshore market and has world class infrastructure that Hexagon can leverage on immediately after an acquisition rather than building such infrastructure in-house.”
The offer will not be subject to any financing conditions. Hexagon’s preliminary assessment is that the offer will not be subject to any competition approval. The complete details of the offer, including all terms and conditions, will be contained in an offer document pursuant to chapter 6 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Hexagon has filed the offer document for review and approval with the Oslo Stock Exchange and the offer document will be sent to Veripos’ shareholders as soon as it has been approved. The acceptance period for the pffer will be five weeks from the date of the offer document being released, unless extended by Hexagon. The acceptance period may be extended, one or several times, provided however that the maximum acceptance period may not exceed 10 weeks.
As will be further detailed and specified in the offer document, the completion of the offer will be subject to the following conditions being satisfied or waived by Hexagon:
- The offer has been accepted by shareholders representing more than 90 per cent on a fully diluted basis of the share capital and voting rights to which the offer relates;
- Approvals from public authorities;
- No material adverse change up until the settlement of the offer;
- Conduct of business in the ordinary course and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and decisions of any governmental body; and
- Other customary conditions to be specified in the offer document.
While the offer will be subject to a completion condition of more than 90 per cent acceptance, Hexagon will retain its full right to amend or waive such condition, and hereunder also to make a compulsory acquisition of any remaining shares, subsequently to the offer, through the implementation of a so called “long-form merger” under the Cayman Company Act should the acceptance of the Offer be equivalent to more than two-thirds of the outstanding share capital and voting rights on a fully diluted basis.
The Offer will not be made in any jurisdiction in which the making of the Offer would not be in compliance with the laws of such jurisdiction. The Offer will be made to U.S. shareholders in Veripos. This notification does not in itself constitute an offer. The Offer will only be made on the basis of the Offer Document and can only be accepted pursuant to the terms of such document.
Breaking news?? from the Geopspatial Montly newsletter? Well, it does show dated Oct 16, 2013 but that’s > 1 mo. ago. Things change fast these days… Real news is who is SIEM and TOPCON–let the bidding games begin. Curiosly, Veripos offer is somewhere in the $150-190 MM (US) range?? Siracha hot sauce does ~$60 MM (US) revenue per year. Sadly, even superlative positioning/corrections utility services–really, really useful and great things–fade comparatively. Reminds me of someone who once said, “When are we going to start making money with GPS?” {Yeah, I know GNSS is a $MMM industry}.
Do you want hot sauce with that?
–J.G.
With a monthly newsletter, breaking news is hit or miss. It’s breaking news if the timing is right. Otherwise, it’s just news. The proposed Veripos acquisition could have an interesting impact on the commercial SBAS market since there’s very few players in that space.
Hmmm 44% premium sounds seriously like someone wants to get hold of this capability. Sound like someone is having to play catchup. Who’s already doing the things that they want to be able to do with this aquisition?
Deere/Navcom, Omnistar (is that Veripos now or Trimble), Trimble’s own “corrections”, Hemisphere & Novatel (but those someone else’s SBAS ?), GMV, WAAS (yep, CONUS & fringes), NTRIP/IGS even free…(lots of caveats–yes, not SBAS radiated). TerraStar, JPL? ++ others. You’ve written about all/most of them. It does seem surprisingly crowded to have all these “unique” sources and transmitters given the complexity/expense. There is something really special about being able to charge sea farers so much more for the exact same content::corrections/reliability/SBAS-source than a landlubber, viz GeoFencing.
Interesting ‘business’, this GNSS.
(PS: I heard a rumour about Russians requiring phones sold there to have to use GLONASS, soon/now? That’s Putin(sic) your money where your mouth is).
Not really crowded. Omnistar dominates the land business, most of which Navcom doesn’t seem to care about outside of ag. Veripos/Terrastar has yet to gain any traction. Those are the only real-time decimeter players. IGS-RT has a ways to go and requires support from GNSS designers. Public SBAS like WAAS are a different story. They don’t offer decimeter service.
I may be mistaken, but I think the offshore users receive a much higher level of guaranteed service, and therefore pay a premium.
Thanks for your comments.