Following recent changes in the ownership structure, Munich retailer Ludwig Beck is about to withdraw from the stock exchange. On Wednesday evening, the company announced the conclusion of a delisting agreement with its new majority shareholder Bayerische Gewerbebau AG.
According to a statement, the real estate company and its subsidiaries currently own almost 78.2 percent of the shares in Ludwig Beck am Rathauseck – Textilhaus Feldmeier Aktiengesellschaft. The new majority owner, backed by entrepreneur Alfons Doblinger, will now make the remaining shareholders a mandatory offer for the outstanding shares. This will also be designed as a “public delisting acquisition offer”.
Planned delisting is “in the interests of society”
After the publication of the offer, Ludwig Beck will, as part of the agreement, “submit an application for the revocation of the admission of the Ludwig Beck shares to trading in the regulated market and at the same time the admission to the sub-area of the regulated market with further post-admission obligations (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and to trading in the regulated market of the Munich Stock Exchange,” the company said. In addition, it will “take all reasonable measures to end the inclusion of the shares in the open market, to the extent that this inclusion was at the company’s request.”
Ludwig Beck’s management justified the agreement: The board of directors “considering the overall circumstances is of the opinion that the conclusion of the delisting agreement and the delisting are in the interests of the company,” the company said. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board would issue a reasoned statement “immediately after publication of the offer document”. Only at the beginning of the week did the company announce the immediate resignation of its supervisory board chairman Bruno Sälzer.