(News Bulletin 247) – The Talan group will launch a purchase offer on Micropole, with a much more generous proposal than that of Miramar, at 3.12 euros per share.

The Paris Stock Exchange is the scene of an impoverishment of the rating with the multiplication of public purchase offers. The renewable energy specialist Neoen is a serious contender for a delisting since it is the subject of a takeover project this Thursday from Brookfield, a Canadian private equity company.

A little further down in the stock market hierarchy, there is also activity on the side of Micropole which should experience a similar fate very soon. This medium-sized digital services company indicated this Thursday morning that it was considering a buyout offer among several investor proposals.

Talan wins the bet

The company’s management ultimately gave its preference to Talan Holding’s offer, deemed “better both in terms of price per share and industrial project”. Between the lines, Micropole tackles Miramar’s initiative which is, de facto, definitively offside.

The investment company of entrepreneur Sébastien Lombardo decided to launch a public purchase offer at the end of March at 1.5 euros per share, which represented a premium of 44% compared to the last price quoted before the announcement. But the digital services company had little appreciation for Miramar’s offensive, not to say hostile, approach, which had left the door open to alternative offers, including that of Talan.

The innovation and transformation consulting group has thus irrevocably committed to submitting a voluntary public takeover offer for all of Micropole’s shares, “in approximately the next three weeks”.

A premium of 200% compared to the price of March 22

In this context, Talan proposes a price per share of 3.12 euros per share, which reflects a generous premium of 108% compared to the first Miramar buyout project which retained a price of 1.5 euros per share.

That is a premium of 200% compared to the closing price of the Micropole share on March 22, which was 1.04 euros. Talan’s proposal therefore values ​​Micropole’s equity at 90.7 million euros.

Micropole’s board of directors unanimously welcomed Talan’s offer, which then plans to delist the digital services company, if the offeror holds at least 90% of the capital.

For Talan, the acquisition of Micropole represents “a solid and exciting industrial project enabling the Talan group to be consolidated as a world leader in the transformation of organizations through the levers of technology, data and innovation”.

“The merger of Talan and Micropole will create one of the essential expert leaders in data and innovation in Europe. The new group aims to represent 780 million euros in turnover in 2024, of which more than 250 million euros linked to data expertise and comprising more than 6,200 employees spread across 18 countries”, indicates Micropole.

Quotation of the Micropole share was suspended at the request of the company, and will resume Friday or tomorrow to probably align with the price of the offer formulated by Talan, i.e. 3.12 euros.

While waiting for trading to resume on the Paris Stock Exchange, Micropole has seen its price double since the announcement of the first Miramar takeover project at the end of March, and has gained 94% since the start of the year.