DARMSTADT (dpa-AFX) - The planned takeover of Software AG could see a bidding war. Over the weekend, financial investor Bain Capital reported an indirect stake of a good 10 percent in the Darmstadt-based company, for which U.S. technology investor Silver Lake had recently announced its takeover intentions. At the same time, the hedge fund Elliott of star investor Paul Singer has its fingers in the pie, as the news agency Bloomberg had already reported last week with reference to informed persons. The U.S. presumably hopes to profit from a possible takeover battle or a forced settlement. The share price recently rose further on the back of investors' imagination.

The SDax-listed stock already cost more than the 30 euros per share promised by Silver Lake before the long weekend. In early trading on Tuesday, the share price climbed by more than 5 percent to 32.54 euros, reaching a high since the end of June 2022. In recent months, the share had fallen to a level of around 20 euros before the Silver Lake plan became known. In the fall of 2020 and 2021, however, the stock had still been worth almost 45 euros at the respective high.

Bloomberg reported before the weekend that Bain was seeking talks with Software AG regarding a possible takeover and merger with its portfolio company Rocket Software. The deliberations are still at an early stage and do not necessarily have to result in an offer, it said. A spokeswoman for the SDax company would not comment on the report. Bain also would not comment on the information, according to Bloomberg

Silver Lake had announced less than two weeks ago that it wanted to take over the Darmstadt-based company. The U.S. investor wants to pay 30 euros per share in cash; this offer values the company at around 2.2 billion euros. For its part, Silver Lake announced last Friday that it had bought a further five percent of the software provider. The company had thus secured a total stake of more than 30 percent.

Silver Lake is known as an investor in technology companies; among other things, the Californians also want to take over SAP's market research subsidiary Qualtrics together with the Canadian pension fund CPP Investment in a billion-euro deal. Silver Lake had already invested in Software AG in 2022 via a convertible bond. Since then, the company has provided two members of the Darmstadt-based company's Supervisory Board, Christian Lucas, Chairman, and James Whitehurst, an IT expert.

The previous major shareholder of the SDax group, the Software AG Foundation of company co-founder Peter Schnell, had agreed to sell 25.1 percent of its shares to Silver Lake. Schnell had described Silver Lake as an "ideal partner" for the foundation and the Group. The foundation is also to remain on board with 5 percent of the shares for the time being.

The board of the Darmstadt-based company had not initiated a sales process in the wake of the Silver Lake offer and had not solicited other offers, as Software AG CEO Sanjay Brahmawar had said in a conference call. Accordingly, the cooperation with Silver Lake had given the management certainty that the financial investor would continue to support the restructuring of the group. Software AG is deep in the throes of an expensive transformation to a subscription-based business model. The IT company's growth has been weakening for years, even though the software provider expects great business opportunities from the digitalization of the economy.

With Bain Capital, a rival offer could now be on the table. While financial investors usually look for a lucrative exit from an investment after some time, Bain could pursue a different goal this time via a merger with its own Rocket Software and want to create a larger provider. According to the announcement, Bain has bought 4.5 percent of the shares directly via Rocket Software, and the investor has secured access to another 5.5 percent via financial instruments.

The U.S. company Rocket Software primarily offers database platforms that help make data analysis and IT use more efficient. Software AG's largest division is integration software for linking different IT systems, but the Darmstadt-based company also offers databases for mainframes in its traditional core business./men/tav/stk