The undertaking to accept an offer was based on three conditions: 1) a price of EUR 46.50 per share for the Finnish e-invoicing company; 2) the deal closes within three months of acceptance and 3) no rival offer 30% higher supersedes it.
The figure (a 25.9% premium on Basware’s average closing price over the past five trading days) would value Finland’s Basware at a robust EUR 669 million (GBP 586 million), according to Computer Business Review’s calculations. Over 90% of Basware’s shareholders would then have to approve, as well as regulators.
If Tradeshift can finance the deal it would remove one of its major rivals from the e-invoicing and supply chain finance management market, and subsume a blue chip Basware customer base that includes ABB, McDonalds, Heineken, Toshiba, and Toyota.
Tradeshift declined to comment. Arrowgrass did not respond to a request for comment. Basware on November 20 acknowledged it had been approached with a non-binding and highly conditional indicative proposal for a possible tender offer by Tradeshift, but it had not among other things, received any confirmation that the financing for the Indicative Proposal is appropriately secured and as there can be no assurance that the Indicative Proposal will result in a tender offer or any transaction.
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