Drives and Controls Magazine
Home
Menu
Schneider Electric and Aveva call off their £550m merger
Published:  15 December, 2015

Schneider Electric’s planned reverse takeover of the UK-based industrial software developer Aveva has been abandoned after the two parties were unable to agree on the terms of the transaction.

The planned takeover, announced last July, would have combined their software operations to create “a global leader in industrial software”. Schneider was going to pay £550m ($855m) towards the issue of new shares in Aveva, giving it a majority stake in the business.

Now, Aveva has announced that “following a period of extensive due diligence the Boards of Aveva and Schneider Electric have been unable to reach agreement and discussions have been terminated by mutual consent. The previously announced terms of the transaction were non-binding and as a result no break fees are payable by either party.

“During the due diligence process,” it adds, “significant integration challenges were identified that could not be overcome without considerable additional risk and cost. This was exacerbated by the highly complex structure of the proposed transaction. As a result, the Board has determined that the anticipated uplift in shareholder value was unlikely to have been realised to the extent previously considered.”

In a short statement, Schneider Electric says that “the two parties have agreed to stop their discussions by mutual consent as no agreement could be reached on the terms of transaction”.