Consob has given authorization to Tata Motors to proceed with the takeover bid (OPA) for Iveco, the most important Italian group producing heavy vehicles. The objective of the Indian multinational is to obtain 100% of Iveco shares, removing the company from the stock exchange.
The offer will begin on September 7 and last for seven weeks. This is above all a formal step, given that an agreement in principle between Tata and the major shareholders of Iveco for 3.8 billion euros already exists. The Indian group has committed to supporting Iveco’s Italian sites, but a specific industrial plan has not yet been defined.
Tata Motors may proceed with a takeover bid for Iveco
In just a few days, the Indian multinational Tata Motors received authorization first from the ECB and then from Consob, the Italian stock exchange supervisory authority, to proceed with the takeover bid for Iveco. The dates of the operation will be:
- starting September 7th;
- conclusion on October 26;
- reopening between November 2nd and 6th;
- payment of fees on November 13th.
The operation aims to reach 100% of Iveco shares, in order to proceed with the removal of the stock from the Italian stock exchange, the delisting. The takeover bid does not concern Iveco’s Defense division, which was instead sold to Leonardo, the state-controlled company that operates in the weapons sector.
But hadn’t Tata already bought Iveco?
The news may seem like we have already heard it, because Tata has already had an agreement with Iveco’s major shareholders to buy the group for some time. The Indian multinational has in fact agreed with Exor, the Agnelli family holding company that controlled Iveco, to purchase the company for 3.8 billion euros.
The takeover bid, however, is a necessary step, because Exor is not the sole shareholder of Iveco. Various funds and investment banks, even very famous ones, from JP Morgan to BlackRock, have small shares in the company, which however must be purchased by Tata in a public operation, given that Iveco is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange. Formally, the company is based in the Netherlands, and Tata will have to conclude the takeover bid through a Dutch limited liability company.
What a company Tata Motors is
Tata Motors is India’s largest automotive company. It has annual revenue of $46.9 billion, with a goal of reaching $100 billion by 2031. It is part of an even larger conglomerate, Tata Group, which has sales of $180 billion a year, employs more than 1 million people and ranges from automotive to steelmaking to technology.
A large part of Tata Motors’ revenues derive from an important acquisition completed in 2008, that of the British Jaguar-Land Rover group, purchased for 2.3 billion dollars by the American Ford.
The unions’ doubts and Tata’s industrial plan
Tata’s takeover bid for Iveco arrived a few months later than expected, a circumstance that did not reassure the unions. Iveco employs around 14 thousand workers in Italy, with three main factories in:
- Turin, where the headquarters are located;
- Brescia, where heavy vehicles are assembled;
- Suzzara, in the province of Mantua, where the vans are assembled.
Tata has assured that it will invest in these locations, but an industrial plan for the post-acquisition period has not yet been presented.
