CVC Presses Case for Schenker Bid to Deutsche Bahn Officials
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CVC Capital Partners Plc is pressing the case for its takeover bid for Deutsche Bahn AG’s logistics arm DB Schenker with a fresh appeal to top officials at the German state-owned transport group.
The buyout firm sent letters Sept. 9 to Deutsche Bahn’s management and supervisory boards, according to copies seen by Bloomberg. CVC is appealing directly to the officials with the key points of its latest proposals after the German company signaled a preference for a competing offer from rival bidder DSV A/S.
DSV A/S (North America) ranks No. 10 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America. It ranks No. 14 on the TT Top 50 list of the largest global freight carriers.
DB Schenker ranks No. 25 on the TT Top 100 list of logistics companies. Maersk ranks No. 28 on that list and No. 5 on the Top 50 list for global freight carriers.
In addition to CVC’s bid for a full takeover of DB Schenker, it has also proposed an alternative offer where Deutsche Bahn would reinvest 1 billion euros to keep a stake of up to 24.9%. CVC has now guaranteed that Deutsche Bahn would generate 2 billion to 2.5 billion euros of proceeds from the reinvestment on the remaining stake when CVC exits the investment, according to the letter. That means the alternative offer is worth at least 16 billion euros in total, they said, after both CVC and the Danish logistics company offered about €14 billion.
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CVC argues that this alternative proposal would let Deutsche Bahn realize more value than a rival bid from DSV A/S. The reinvestment option is preferred by employees representatives and follows a model CVC has used in previous investments including Evonik, the private equity firm wrote in the Sept. 9 letter.
Verdi, Germany’s most powerful labor union, last month made the unusual move of backing the private equity firm’s bid for Schenker. DSV in response made additional job and investment pledges and Deutsche Bahn currently favors its bid because of the higher upfront payment, the people said.
A representative for CVC declined to comment.
