UK tech giant Aveva agrees £10bn takeover by French

ONE of Britain’s last blue chip tech companies is to be bought by the French after a £10bn takeover offer survived a revolt by investors.

Aveva, a FTSE 100 industrial software business, is being acquired by the Paris-listed energy conglomerate Schneider Electric.

The deal means that the accounting provider Sage is the only tech player left on the UK’S flagship stock market index.

Schneider, which already owned 60pc of Aveva, secured approval from investors holding more than three quarters of remaining stock at a court meeting yesterday.

Several major shareholders had criticised the offer as opportunistic following a global tech sell-off. Schneider was forced to sweeten its original bid of £31 per share as a result, tabling £32.25 as its final offer for the company.

revealed last week that top 20 shareholder M&G would vote against the improved offer. Schneider, a former steel producer founded in 1836 that now makes energy management technology, acquired a majority stake in Aveva in 2017.

In September, it confirmed its plans to acquire the rest of the company after Aveva struggled to meet profit and growth targets. Its share price had fallen by a third in the year to when Schneider’s bid emerged.

Founded in the 1960s in Cambridge as the government-backed Computer Aided Design Centre, Aveva develops software for the oil and gas and chemicals industries.

The deal had been hanging in the balance after a top five shareholder, the hedge fund Davidson Kempner, indicated it would vote against Schneider’s original takeover bid.

Peter Herweck, Aveva chief executive, said: “We will remain an autonomous business, operating under the Aveva name and brand.”

The takeover will complete in the first three months of 2023, the companies said. Aveva was advised by investment bankers Lazard, JP Morgan Cazenove and Numis.