TNT Express held talks with several potential strategic investors last year but UPS was the onlyone to make a firm offer, company executives revealed yesterday.
Supervisory board chairman Antony Burgmans told shareholders at the company’s AGM that TNTExpress had believed it had a future as an independent company after the demerger from TNT NV(PostNL) last May.
But a “complex basis of shareholders” and pressure from the European crisis forced the companyto hold talks with several potential investors, he added. Activist shareholders Jana Partners andAimco in particular were pressuring management to consider selling the company, observersnoted.
UPS, however, was the only one of the strategic investors to actually make a bid, he said.
Burgmans said that the UPS offer of €9.50 per share was “a fair price” under the circumstances,given that conditions for a bid were not perfect due to uncertainty over TNT’s prospects, and heplayed down any risk of European competition authorities blocking the transaction. The bid valuesTNT Express at just under €5.2 billion.
Analysts have speculated that FedEx might make a competing offer for TNT Express but FedEx CEOFred Smith recently stressed the company wanted to grow organically in Europe. However, it hasannounced the acquisition of Polish courier Opek.
Under the offer timescale, UPS has to file the formal offer with the Dutch Authority forFinancial Markets (AFM) by May 11, and the offer will run for a minimum of two weeks and maximum of20 weeks. An Extraordinary General Meeting of TNT Express shareholders is planned for the end ofJuly, and the offer is scheduled to close in Q3, assuming phase 1 clearance by the EuropeanCommission and no extension of the offer.
