S+B - Families sell and update

All,

Please find our updated analysis here.

Further to our mail, Martin Haefner now controls just under half of S+B’s shares. 

The families had not participated in the RI and thus its shareholding amounted only to 4.7%. As per our conversation with the company yesterday that information was not yet public. 

In light of this development it appears the families’ litigation against the exemption was merely a weak negotiation gambit and will now be dropped. We also assume that Haefner has cleared the move with the regulator beforehand and that it is covered by the existing 5-year exemption.

Finally, Haefner’s BigPoint holding has guaranteed the redemption of the bonds - large parts of which are now unlikely to tender. The tendering is back-stopped by BigPoint and the banks, but Haefner’s share should be injected as equity, giving him over 50% eventually and together with Liwet over 75% (we have not reviewed the articles of association, but it seems a reasonable assumption).

We remain strongly positive on the post-reorg equity, following an initial cooling off period and potentially debilitating Q4 figures in March.

Wolfgang