The executive board of S&T AG resolved today to increase the company's share capital. This transaction is subject to the suspensory condition of an approval by the Austrian Takeover Commission. This will ensue from authorized capital, and will increase the share capital of S&T AG by EUR 4,383,620 on a cash paid basis. This capital will thus rise from EUR 43,916,204 to EUR 48,299,824. To bring about this capital increase, 4,383,620 shares bearing profit entitlement and dated as of January 1, 2016 will be issued. The quote of issuance will be close to the EUR 10.03 prevailing on security exchanges. This issuance will yield some EUR 43.9 million to S&T AG. The right of subscription borne by shareholders will be excluded.
The new shares will be subscribed for by the Taiwan-based Ennoconn Corporation. Ennoconn Corporation is a producer of embedded industrial computer systems, and is a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., which is the world's largest producer of electronics. Its brand of Foxconn's high degree of recognition stems from its manufacturing of Apple iPhones. Ennoconn intends to follow up this subscription of S&T shares with the purchasing of further ones from other major shareholders. With these being dependent upon approval by anti-trust authorities, the purchases will give Ennoconn a 29.4% stake in S&T AG.
The inflow of funds from the increase of capital will be directly employed by S&T AG to invest in Kontron AG. In moves taking place today, the Executive Board of S&T AG and Warburg Pincus und Triton Partners signed contracts foreseeing the former's acquisition of 29.9% of the shares of Kontron AG. 5.1% of the shares of the latter were acquired by S&T through the its German 100% subsidiary Blitz 16-575 AG (to operate under the name of S&T Deutschland Holding AG in the future) without precondition. A further 24.8% have been purchased subject to the approval by anti-trust authorities. The total purchase price of the transactions comes to some EUR 59.9 million. S&T does not plan to purchase further Kontron shares nor does it intend to make a takeover bid.
The strategic working relationship with Foxconn Group and Kontron enables important synergies to S&T AG. Foxconn Group is one of the leading manufacturers in the areas of embedded computer systems and wireless data transmission. As such, Foxconn possesses large and highly-efficient production facilities. Kontron's position of having been the leader on the market for embedded computer systems has bequeathed it a broad range of customers. Using S&T’s software engineering resources, the three companies have the potential to be a world leader in the fields of Internet of Things and Industry 4.0.
On S&T AG
S&T AG (www.snt.at, ISIN AT0000A0E9W5, WKN A0X9EJ, SANT) is the lead company of an international technology group that employs some 2,400 people and maintains operations in 20 countries. S&T is listed on the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. S&T is a major supplier of IT systems. Its extensive portfolio of IT services and solutions makes S&T one of the leading suppliers in this field in Central and Eastern Europe. S&T's portfolio includes a large number of proprietary developments. These for the Appliances, Cloud Security and Smart Energy sectors.