STADA: Domination and profit and loss transfer agreement between STADA Arzneimittel AG and Nidda Healthcare GmbH takes effect / beginning of acceptance period for severance offer

Bad Vilbel, March 20, 2018 – The domination and profit and loss transfer agreement (DPLA) between Nidda Healthcare GmbH (Nidda Healthcare) as the controlling entity and STADA Arzneimittel AG (STADA) as the dependent company was entered into the commercial register of the Company at the District Court of Frankfurt am Main on March 20, 2018. The inter-company agreement that was approved by STADA’s Extraordinary General Meeting on February 2, 2018 thus takes effect.

STADA shareholders now have the opportunity to tender their shares to Nidda Healthcare in return for a compensation in the amount of €74.40 per share through their custodian bank. The acceptance period for this offer expires two months after the day on which the entry of the DPLA in the commercial register pursuant to Section 10 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) was announced. Should a duly submitted petition for a court ruling on the severance or the compensation be made to the court determined in Section 2 of the German Act on Appraisal Proceedings (Spruchverfahrensgesetz), the period shall end two months after the day on which the last petition that is decided upon is announced in the Federal Gazette (Bundesanzeiger).

Those remaining STADA shareholders who do not accept the severance offer remain shareholders of the Company and receive for the duration of the contract – instead of an annual dividend – a recurring compensation payment payable for each full fiscal year of STADA for each STADA share in the amount of €3.82 gross or €3.53 net at current tax rates.

Deutsche Telekom AG: T-Mobile US, Inc. announces plans to combine with Sprint Corp. in a stock for stock merger

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014

T-Mobile US, Inc., a publicly listed subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG, and Sprint Corp., a publicly listed subsidiary of Softbank Group Corp., together with Deutsche Telekom and Softbank, today have entered into a legally binding business combination agreement to merge the two companies in an all-stock transaction at an exchange ratio of one T-Mobile US share for 9.75 shares of Sprint's outstanding common stock without an additional cash component.

This will add approx. 426 million T-Mobile US shares to the 865 million already issued, bringing the total to approx. 1.29 billion shares (based on fully diluted shares).

The completion of the transaction is subject to a number of closing conditions, including, among others, the receipt of required antitrust and regulatory approvals (inter alia Department of Justice, FCC, CFIUS) and approvals by the shareholders of T-Mobile US and Sprint.

Upon completion of the transaction, it is expected that Deutsche Telekom, Softbank and the public will hold approximately 42 percent, 27 percent and 31 percent of the combined company's common stock respectively. In addition, Softbank and Deutsche Telekom will enter into a voting agreement securing Deutsche Telekom a proxy over all of Softbank's shares in the combined company.

Following the merger, Deutsche Telekom will have the right to appoint 9 out of 14 members of the Board of Directors of T-Mobile US, of whom a minimum of two must be independent. Timotheus Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, will become Chairman of the Board of T-Mobile US, and John Legere, currently a Board Member and Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile US, will continue as a Board Member and Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile US.

The shareholder structure and a clear governance will allow Deutsche Telekom to continue to fully consolidate T-Mobile US.

Cost and capex synergies with a net present value of approximately 43 billion U.S. dollars (net of integration costs) are expected for the then larger T-Mobile US as a result of the merger, with projected integration costs of around 15 billion U.S. dollars. Starting 3 years after closing of the transaction, synergies are expected to exceed integration costs for the first time.

The transaction will not affect Deutsche Telekom's outlook on the group for the current financial year 2018. Deutsche Telekom's statement on dividend policy for the financial year 2018 also remains unchanged.

Net leverage (defined as net debt to adjusted EBITDA) for Deutsche Telekom is expected to exceed the target corridor of 2.0-2.5x following the transaction. However, strong free cash flow generation of T-Mobile US over the coming years is expected to result in strong deleveraging bringing the ratio back to the target corridor in 2021.

For calculation purposes closing of the transaction is assumed to take place at the end of 2018. T-Mobile US and Sprint, however, expect closing of the transaction in the first half of 2019. Deutsche Telekom figures are based on current accounting standards (not taking IFRS 16 into account).

Linde AG: Linde plc, Linde and Praxair intend cash merger squeeze out for Linde AG after completion of business combination

Disclosure of an inside information acc. to Article 17 MAR of the Regulation (EU) No 596/2014

Linde plc, Linde Aktiengesellschaft ("Linde") and Praxair, Inc. ("Praxair") have agreed today to implement, in the event of a successful completion of the business combination, for the purpose of simplifying the future group structure under the newly incorporated Linde plc, a merger of Linde AG (as transferring entity) into Linde Intermediate Holding AG (as surviving entity). In this context, a squeeze out of the remaining minority shareholders of Linde AG against adequate cash compensation pursuant to sections 62(1) and (5) of the German Transformation Act (Umwandlungsgesetz - UmwG) in conjunction with sections 327a et seqq. of the German Stock Corporation Act (Aktiengesetz - AktG) would be consummated. Linde Intermediate Holding AG is a wholly-owned indirect subsidiary of Linde plc. In the event of a successful completion of the business combination, Linde Intermediate Holding AG is expected to hold approximately 92 % of the shares in Linde AG.

Study on German Valuation Practice

by Attorney-at-law Martin Arendts, M.B.L.-HSG

I-ADVISE AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Düsseldorf, has once again submitted a study on valuation practices in squeeze-outs, domination and profit and loss transfer agreements, mergers and legal form changes. The study, now published in its fourth edition, on company valuation has been extended to include the opinions with valuation dates in 2017 and shows the development of valuation practice in the years since 2010 (not the years before due to changes in valuation parameters due to the 2009 introduced withholding tax).

The new I-ADVISE study provides important benchmarks for determining the most important parameters in business valuations and provides an overview of the solution of numerous valuation questions by professional valuation experts. However, Dr. Jochen Beumer admits in the preface that current practice can not be equated with best practice possible.

It is also not examined how this practice is then judged by the courts charged with reviewing the valuation (in some cases very differently). Decisions in these proceedings - if the case it not quickly settled - only become final after many years (as judicial review proceedings may take more than 10 years).

175 business evaluations were analyzed. Only in five cases was the evaluation not carried out by an authorized auditor. In 66 % of the cases, the calculated enterprise value was higher than the market price and was therefore used as the basis for the compensation payment (so that it would be disadvantageous for minority shareholders, if only the average market price would be regarded as relevant, a position some local courts hold).

In the analysis of past performance, a three-year period was examined in 80% of cases. In 79% of the reports, a planning horizon of three to five years was used. Longer planning periods relate in particular to infrastructure investments, solar companies or life insurance companies.

The FAUB recommendation on higher market risk pemium approach has become widely accepted in practice (despite criticism in the industry and by judges in the relevant case law). In the current cases almost exclusively 5.5 % are used (in 2017 with three outliers upwards: once 5.75 % and twice 6.0 %).

The beta factor was determined in 95 % of the evaluations by means of a peer group. The number of comparable companies showed between 2 and 24 companies used (on average, for the years examined, mostly 8 or 9 companies). While in the meantime, a global index has been used as the benchmark (2014: 43%), a broad local index is usually used again (2017 in 72% of the cases). In 69% of the evaluations, a raw beta factor was used and no flat-rate adjustments were made (only 16% adjusted beta factors in 2017).

The study can be downloaded for free:
http://www.i-advise.de/de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/180314-Studie-Bewertungspraxis.pdf

For the first time, the study will also be published in English:
http://www.i-advise.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/180314-Study-German-Valuation.pdf

KTM Industries AG: Delisting offer to the shareholders of Pankl Racing Systems AG concluded successfully

- Offer accepted for 39,273 shares 

- KTM Industries Group now holds 98.22 % 

- Last trading day of Pankl-shares: 30 May 2018 

On 3 January 2018 KTM Industries AG ("Offeror") has announced its intention to launch an offer to the shareholders of Pankl Racing Systems AG in the course of the delisting of the Pankl-shares (ISIN AT0000800800). The Offeror and the parties acting in concert with it held 3,054,765 shares prior to the start of the acceptance period, which equalled to approximately 96.98 % of the share capital. Thus, the offer aimed at the acquisition of a total of 95,235 Pankl-shares.