Uniper Faces Challenging Week

Uniper's fate hangs in the balance this week as it continues to oppose a hostile planned takeover by Finnish utility Fortum. 

Two months ago Fortum set a deadline for acceptance of its offer of €22 ($27)/Uniper share of January 16 2018 at 24:00 Central European Time (CET). Shares now though are almost €3 higher.

Germany’s E.ON however announced January 8 that it had tendered its 170.72mn Uniper shares (46.65% of Uniper share capital), to Fortum.  E.ON would have had to pay a penalty to Fortum, as agreed last year, of about 20% of the €22 price  had it decided against tendering its shares.

Fortum welcomed E.ON's move, adding that an “additional acceptance period will presumably begin January 20 and end on February 2 2018.” In November, it had reserved the right to acquire additional Uniper shares outside of the primary offer, either on or off the stock exchange. CEO Pekka Lundmark had said at the time it had no plans to raise its offer price. However Uniper shares have strengthened and, at 15.30 CET January 15, were trading at €24.91 each.  

A Uniper spokesperson told NGW January 15:“We still firmly believe that Uniper can successfully compete in the marketplace as an independent company. Last week E.ON has sold its stake in Uniper to Fortum despite the substantially higher stock market price. In light of the exceptionally high break-up fee, this was to be expected. The additional acceptance period is expected to run until February 2, 2018 – for us and our communication this will be the relevant deadline. We will then see how many shareholders have accepted Fortum’s offer.”

Uniper was spun off from E.ON in 2016, with 53.35% of Uniper stock transferred to E.ON shareholders. In March 2017, E.ON reported a record full year loss for 2016 of €16bn. Fortum said in November it expected to finalise the Uniper acquisition in mid-2018; if successful at €22/share, its offer would value 100% of Uniper at €8.05bn.