Tokyo Milano solo andata

6 April 2016 By Neil Unmack Follow @unmack1

The Japanese company is locked in a feud with some funds, who argue it should pay more for control of signalmaker Ansaldo. Savings worth at least 395 mln euros suggest it can. Italy has started to open markets to foreign bidders – now foreign investors may help police them.

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Hitachi said on March 23 it had increased its stake in Ansaldo STS to 50.8 percent, acquiring shares at 10.50 euros a share. The announcement follows a failed tender offer in which Hitachi offered to buy the 60 percent of Ansaldo it didn’t own for 9.50 euros a share. Investors holding shares equivalent to 6.4 percent of the group agreed to tender, according to a March 16 statement.

Elliott Advisors, which owns 28.9 percent of Ansaldo, said in a March 24 statement that the purchases confirm Hitachi’s “public tender offer significantly undervalued Ansaldo STS.”

Hitachi bought a 40 percent stake in signalmaker Ansaldo STS from Finmeccanica in February 2015 for 760 million euros. It also paid Finmeccanica 36 million euros for all of Breda, an unlisted rolling stock manufacturer now part of Hitachi Rail Italy.

Hitachi said the purpose of the tender offer was to allow the Hitachi group to integrate Ansaldo in “an efficient and effective manner”, according to the offer document dated Dec. 9.

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