Phoenix Share Deadline Looms

Phoenix AG shareholders have a last chance to accept the offer submitted by Continental AG for the takeover of Phoenix AG shares. The statutory mandated deadline for acceptance of Continental’s 15 euros per share offer is 19 July.

At the end of the bid acceptance period on 28 June, Continental had control of 75.54 per cent of Phoenix’s shares and therefore had reached the minimum bid acceptance threshold (75 per cent) it had defined as a condition of takeover. Under German law this triggered the additional two-week bid acceptance period.

The success of the takeover now hinges on the outcome of the EU commission’s merger control review. Continental’s proposed takeover of Phoenix fits into its strategy of further developing its ContiTech division to one of the world’s leading specialists for rubber and plastics technology. In the 2003 financial year ContiTech recorded sales of around 1.8 billion euros.