LONDON (Reuters) – Aveva’s shareholders approved majority owner Schneider Electric’s takeover on Friday in a deal valuing the British software company at 9.86 billion pounds ($11.91 billion).
France’s Schneider, which already owns nearly 60% of Aveva, upped its offer to 3,225 pence earlier this month after several major investors threatened to reject its previous 3,100 pence offer, which they termed “opportunistic”.
Schneider took majority control of the British company in a 2017 reverse takeover that allowed Aveva to retain its London listing.
It said when it launched its full takeover bid in September that Aveva would be an autonomous business and its software would remain “fully agnostic”, meaning it will work with or without Schneider Electric hardware.
Aveva’s products are used to design and manage oil rigs, ships and chemical plants, while the French multinational spans electrical components, energy management and industrial automation systems.
($1 = 0.8278 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by William James)
