Palfinger walks away from TTS takeover

AUGUST 15, 2016 —Salzburg, Austria, based Palfinger AG, has decided not to proceed with its planned NOK 600 (about $73 million) takeover bid for Bergen, Norway, based TTS Group AS (see earlier story).

In a stock exchange announcement, Kongsberg says that a closing conditions of the acquisition was that Palfinger had to get acceptances for at least 90 percent of the TTS shares on a fully diluted basis.

At the expiry of the acceptance period at 16:30 on August 12, this condition was not fulfilled.

“We are surprised that the transaction will not be completed. We will now fully concentrate our energy on execute executing our stand-alone strategy. Short term focus will be on operational efficiency,” says Toril Eidesvik, CEO of TTS Group.

“This means that the strategic process which was announced February 12, 2015 has come to an end. In the coming months, we will focus on refining our strategy and action plans for 2017 and beyond,” Eidesvik said. “Our fully committed TTS colleagues possess unique competence and knowledge and I am sure that they will do their very best to fulfill TTS Group’s potential. The world economy indicates some rough seas ahead, which makes it even more important than ever to focus on good work processes and efficient value chains.”