French industrial conglomerate Schneider Electric has agreed to buy the rest of Aveva, in a deal that values the UK software developer at £9.4bn and strips the London market of one of its few remaining large tech groups.
The French group is buying the 40 per cent of Aveva it does not already own for £31 a share, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The deal is one of the bigger acquisitions in the UK this year.
The offer marks a premium of about 40 per cent since Schneider confirmed it was exploring a potential buyout in late August. Shares in Cambridge-based Aveva closed up at £30.38 on Tuesday.
Aveva, which was spun out of Cambridge university in the 1960s, is one of Britain’s oldest technology companies. Its software has focused primarily on the energy, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors — areas on which Schneider Electric focuses as well — although it has also expanded into a wider range of industries.
Schneider’s market value has grown sharply in the past four years as more of its clients looked to save energy and use automation and specialised software in data centres and buildings.
The French group said on Wednesday that the deal would allow a “faster execution of Schneider Electric’s software growth strategy”.
