ALEXANDER CAMPBELL / LONDON
Domestic solution preferred for Spanish company, as Germans seek to beat deadline
Spanish engine manufacturer ITP has attracted eight suitors keen to take control of the company by the end of the year. Part-owner Sener, a Spanish engineering group, is thought to be the front-runner, while Rolls-Royce, which already owns 47% of ITP, is not interested in a complete takeover.
Spanish state holding company SEPI announced earlier this month that it would sell its 50% stake in Turbo 2000, a holding company that in turn owns 53% of ITP. Spanish engineering company Sener owns the other 50% of Turbo 2000, and has agreed to sell its share, meaning that the successful bidder will automatically get a 53% controlling stake in ITP. Sener has the option to match the highest bid.
No formal bids have yet been placed. The interested parties have roughly a month for due diligence inspections of ITP before making binding offers, probably around the start of December, SEPI says. Selection of the winning bid is due around the end of the year.
Bidders will have to guarantee they will not cut any jobs for at least three years and continue all ITP's programmes, investing as much as necessary. Although SEPI says "there are no restrictions on foreign buyers", sources close to ITP say the Spanish government is "looking for a Spanish solution" and that Sener is the preferred candidate.
Meanwhile, German engine builder MTU could be sold to a private equity group by the end of the year, according to Manfred Gentz, chief financial officer of parent company DaimlerChrysler. MTU will go either to UK group Doughty Hanson or a US consortium led by Kolberg Kravis & Roberts - US bidders Blackstone and Carlyle Group have dropped out. If completed by the end of the year, the sale will avoid being blocked by a proposed law limiting foreign ownership of German defence companies, due to come into force in early 2004.
Source: Flight International
