Bosch has signed agreements with Ventizz to acquire a 50.45 percent
stake in ersol Solar Energy AG Public takeover offer to purchase all outstanding shares in ersol Solar
Energy AG at 101.00 euros per share in cash ersol develops, manufactures, and sells wafer-based silicon solar cells
and thin-film modules ersol Group: 160 million euros sales in 2007, more than 300 million
euros sales expected in 2008, currently some 1,000 associates at three
locations
Stuttgart ¨C Bosch has signed agreement with the financial investor Ventizz
to acquire 50.45 percent of the shares in ersol Solar Energy AG, Erfurt,
Germany. The purchase price for these shares amounts to 546.4 million
euros, equivalent to a price of 101.00 euros per share. The acquisition of
the shareholding is subject to approval by the antitrust authorities. As a
result of these agreements, Bosch intends to make a public takeover offer
to all other ersol shareholders, in which it will also offer 101.00 euros per
share in cash. The offer price will represent a premium of 68 percent based
on the weighted average XETRA? and floor-trading share price of the past
three months. Apart from Ventizz, further ersol shareholders, whose
combined shareholding comes to a total of 3.3 percent, have already
signed irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer.
ersol Solar Energy AG develops, manufactures, and sells wafer-based
silicon solar cells, and is moving into the manufacture of thin-film modules.
The photovoltaics company generated global sales of 160 million euros in
2007. For 2008, ersol expects sales of more than 300 million euros. The
company currently employs some 1,000 associates at three locations.
With this acquisition, Bosch hopes to extend its business in the area of
renewable energies. !°As a leading technology and services company
offering beneficial products and services, Bosch significantly contributes to
protecting the environment and conserving resources. Together with ersol,
which is a successful company in the field of photovoltaics, we want to
further expand our business in this area. In this enterprise, we will count
very much on the know-how and experience of ersol!ˉs management and
associates,!± said Franz Fehrenbach chairman of the Bosch board of
management.
Bosch is already active in the market with many systems for utilizing
renewable energies. With its existing activities in this area, it plans to
generate sales of some 750 million euros in 2008. Bosch Rexroth, for
example, supplies gear and drive technology for wind turbines, develops
efficient drive concepts for the still young sector of marine energy
generation, and supplies hydraulic adjusting systems for solar thermal
power stations. In addition, Bosch Thermotechnology has become the
market leader in the rapidly growing market for electric heat pumps, and is
also a leading manufacturer of solar collectors for hot-water generation. In
June 2007, Bosch entered into an alliance with the German companies
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen) and Heliatek GmbH (Dresden) in the promising
area of organic photovoltaics. The objective of this alliance is to produce
solar cells significantly more cost effectively and at the same time to
increase the number of areas where they can be used.