Cleary Gottlieb is representing Total in connection with a friendly cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Saft, a French high-tech battery manufacturer.
The tender offer was announced on May 9, 2016, and is expected to be launched in June following approval of the offer documents by the French Autorité des marchés financiers.
If all of Saft’s shares are tendered in the offer, the total amount of the offer consideration would be €950 million. The offer price of €36.50 per share, ex-dividend of €0.85 per share, represents a 38.3 percent premium above Saft’s closing share price of €26.40 on May 6, 2016, a premium of 41.9 percent above the volume weighted average share price over the past six months and a premium of 24.2 percent above the volume weighted average share price over the past year. The offer values the company at nine times its 2015 reported EBITDA, which represents a significant control premium compared to recent valuation multiples in the battery industry.
The Supervisory Board of Saft has unanimously approved the tender offer and announced that it considers the proposed transaction to be in line with the interests of the company, its shareholders and its employees. The Supervisory Board has also announced its intention to recommend that its shareholders tender their shares.
Total is a global energy operator, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, and the second-largest solar energy operator through its majority-owned subsidiary SunPower The acquisition of Saft is part of Total’s ambition to accelerate its development in the fields of renewable energy and electricity. It is intended to allow Total to complement its portfolio with electricity storage solutions, a key component of the future growth of renewable energy.
Saft is the world’s leading manufacturer of nickel batteries and primary lithium batteries for industrial infrastructure and processes, transportation, and civil and military electronics. It is the world leader in space and defense batteries with its Li-ion technologies, which are also deployed in the energy storage, transportation and telecommunication network markets.