The largest shareholder of Advanced Digital Broadcast has announced plans to take the Swiss set top box maker private by buying all the shares it does not own at SFr15.50 (US$16.16) each.
4T, which is owned by the group’s management and the family of…
The largest shareholder of Advanced Digital Broadcast has announced plans to take the Swiss set top box maker private by buying all the shares it does not own at SFr15.50 (US$16.16) each.
4T, which is owned by the group’s management and the family of its founder Andrew Rybicki, currently holds 45.7% of the company’s outstanding shares.
It would pay a total of around SFr42.26m (US$44m) for the 2,726,563 shares it does not own under its offer, although ADB also plans to buy back up to 10% of its outstanding shares at the same price later this year.
The offer is a 34% premium on ADB’s SFr11.55 closing price on 31 October, and a 20% premium based on the volume-weighted average price of its shares over the past 60 trading days.
ADB’s independent directors are supporting 4T’s deal, and believe going private is the best option for the company’s future.
“ADB Group is in the process of changing its business model away from the current hardware-based products towards software, systems and services,” the company said.
“Even though the process is underway, it is envisaged to take a relatively long time during which the operational results will likely be unsteady. Consequently, ADB Group will not be able to provide the stability and predictability desirable for a publicly listed company.”
It expects 4T’s tender offer to run from 20 November 2014 to 17 December 2014, with an anticipated settlement date on or about 27 January 2015.
Bank Vontobel is running the offer.
ADB was founded in 1995 and develops and supplies a variety of solutions needed to view and interact with digital TV broadcast though satellite, cable, terrestrial and IP networks.
