The operator of the Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin or Brussels stock markets, Euronext, has given up buying Allfunds after refusing to improve its initial offer of 5.5 billion, considered insufficient by the Spanish group.
The breakdown of the negotiations has had as its first consequence a 13% drop in the stock market for Allfunds, which now capitalizes close to 4,500 million euros, and a rise of 4.5% for Euronext, whose listing was already penalized at the time of announce the offer. Euronext is preparing to host Ferrovial on its stock exchange platform, which has decided to change its headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands.
“Allfunds’ board of directors considered that the terms of the proposal were inadequate,” explains the Spanish company. “As a consequence, it began a negotiation on the terms with Euronext, but no agreement has been reached and the process has been closed.”
When presenting its offer of 5,500 million, Euronext already informed that it was conditioned on reaching an agreement with the two main shareholders of Allfunds, which are the Hellman fund.
Allfunds’ own board of directors, in which the main shareholders sit, describes the offer of the pan-European group for 100% of the capital as “unsolicited, indicative and conditional”.
Allfunds is a platform specialized in technological investment management with offices in Madrid and the United Kingdom. This ‘wealthtech’, which is how this type of company is known, has reached a stock market value equivalent to an average Ibex company. Although with much less visibility, it can be considered the largest unicorn of Spanish origin, ahead of Cabify or Glovo.
Euronext’s intention was to launch a takeover bid (takeover bid) for 1005 at a price of 8.75 euros per share. The stock market group is taking advantage of its scale at the European level to keep part of the activity of the London City after Brexit and to sophisticate its products to also reach investment funds.
Allfunds is founded and chief executive by Juan Alcaraz, who comes from Santander, where he managed investment firms and was CEO of Santander Asset Management. Another of the co-founders belonging to senior management is Borja Largo, also with experience at Santander. He is accompanied by Luis Carmona, the technology manager, from Bankia, now CaixaBank.
Allfunds employs around 1,300 people and has already aroused the interest of other stock market operators such as the German Deutsche Boerse in the past. The assets that in one way or another circulate through the funds to which it provides technological assistance are around 1.3 trillion euros.
