Business | Technology
Private equity players eye Danish electronics maker
Bang & Olufsen, the electronics maker that ousted its CEO last month, rose in Copenhagen trading after the Berlingske Tidende newspaper said private-equity firms may bid for the company.
- Bloomberg
- Published: 01:05 February 23, 2008
Copenhagen: Bang & Olufsen, the electronics maker that ousted its CEO last month, rose in Copenhagen trading after the Berlingske Tidende newspaper said private-equity firms may bid for the company.
The stock gained as much as 5.8 per cent to a near six-week high. "To our knowledge, it's speculation," Tino Pedersen, head of information at the Struer, Denmark-based company, said yesterday. Berlingske didn't say how it got the information or identify the buyout firms it said are interested.
Bang & Olufsen, whose BeoVision 7 40-inch television with DVD player sells for about $13,250 in the US, lost more than a quarter of its value on January 9 after pressure on American and British incomes led to "disappointing" holiday sales.
Torben Ballegaard Soer-ensen was ousted as CEO the next day after more than seven years in the job.
"The shares have been hit, but the brand value of B&O has not declined," Kenneth Winther, an analyst at Capinordic Bank in Hellerup, Denmark, said.
"We have a liquidity crisis, but I think it's possible," he replied when asked whether tighter credit markets this year would affect the chance of a takeover.
Henrik Ekman, asset manager for pension fund LD, declined to comment, according to Berlingske. LD owns 5.5 per cent of Bang & Olufsen's shares and controls 13.7 per cent of its voting rights, enough to block a takeover, the newspaper said.
The electronics maker needs to be quicker in introducing new goods, Chairman Joergen Worning said last month.
"B&O is struggling a bit with weaker consumer sentiment, but the main difficulty is their new product pipeline is thin," said Peter Kondrup, an analyst at Kaupthing Bank in Copenhagen. "Private equity may be interested, given that B&O doesn't have a CEO right now and the shares are under pressure. But why sell now if you have been a shareholder for many years?"
Worning may be familiar with takeover approaches. The manager was chairman of Hansen Holding in 2005 when French buyout firm PAI Partners agreed to purchase the Danish company's food business.
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