MANNHEIM (dpa-AFX) - Südzucker wants to take over its recently faltering subsidiary Cropenergies completely and then delist it from the stock exchange. On Tuesday evening, the company announced a delisting tender offer for all shares it does not yet own. The offer price is expected to be 11.50 euros in cash per share. Cropenergies went public in 2006.

"Cropenergies is a central pillar of our group. However, the strategic value of the company and its growth potential are not sufficiently reflected either in its share price or in the valuation of CropEnergies," Südzucker CEO Niels Porksen explained the move. The delisting is therefore a logical step towards a clearer capital market profile for Südzucker Group.

CFO Thomas Kolb expects the transaction to offer additional potential for improving liquidity and a revaluation of the Südzucker share. Investors have also "long been calling for a simplification of Südzucker Group's structures".

The news caused the Cropenergies share price to jump by around 70 percent to EUR 11.50 on Wednesday morning. The day before, the share price had fallen to its lowest level since March 2020 at EUR 6.75. Südzucker shares recovered by around two percent. The sugar manufacturer's shares are still down around 13 percent this year, while those of Cropenergies are down around 11 percent.

"An end to the costly boron listing of the subsidiary makes sense for Südzucker," wrote one market participant. However, the planned increase in investment and the pressure on margins in the ethanol sector would not change. Analyst Oliver Schwarz from Warburg Research also saw the reduction in complexity at Südzucker through a delisting as a positive factor in addition to the falling costs.

Following the acquisition of 4.87 percent of Cropenergies shares from Süddeutsche Zuckerrübenverwertungs-Genossenschaft on Tuesday, Südzucker's stake now stands at 74.06 percent, the parent company announced the previous evening.

The Executive Board and Supervisory Board of both companies support the move. Südzucker said that there would be no closing conditions and no minimum acceptance threshold for the takeover bid. The offer documents are expected to be published in mid-January. The acceptance period is also expected to begin then. The offer is fully secured by bridge financing from Deutsche Bank in the amount of EUR 300 million, it was further stated.

While Südzucker had recently expressed optimism about its business prospects, the subsidiary attracted negative attention with lowered forecasts. Due to lower ethanol prices, the company had to cut its targets twice for the financial year to the end of February.

The market for ethanol has been characterized by extreme price fluctuations on the procurement and sales markets for some time, particularly in Europe. This makes it more difficult to forecast Cropenergies' business performance, according to Südzucker./nas/he/stw/mis