The board of Dematic has been in discussions with the shareholders of FSU Investments Limited - which owns 75.6% of its competitor SDI - regarding a possible acquisition of the investment company.
City rules dictate that if Dematic were to acquire FSU, a mandatory offer would be required to be made by Dematic for the remaining shares in SDI not already held by FSU.
SDI and Dematic both have operations in Germany and so any acquisition of FSU by Dematic will be conditional, amongst other things, on the advance clearance of the transaction by the Bundeskartellamt, the German competition authority. Dematic intends to submit an application to the Bundeskartellamt for such clearance in advance of entering into any agreement to acquire FSU.
Dematic believes that the acquisition of SDI would be complementary and would expand Dematic’s product offerings and ability to service its customers globally.