Safran maintains its offer on Zodiac

Saffron is still on track, despite the rejection by the supervisory board of Zodiac's merger offer sent July 6. "We stand by our proposal. It is the shareholders to decide Zodiac. We were very surprised that the leaders of Zodiac reject our proposal without seeking to fathom, "says Jean-Pierre Cojan, Deputy Director General of Safran, head of strategy and development.

The group led by Jean-Paul Herteman no plans to launch a takeover bid (OPA) hostile Zodiac. "I'm not sure that the interests of our shareholders would be served by something other than what we propose, namely to gather around the table. We have no idea at this stage other than to repeat the proposal that was made there about ten days, "says Ross McInness, Chief Financial Officer of Safran.In the letter received by Didier Domange, chairman of the supervisory board of Zodiac, Jean-Paul Herteman, CEO of Safran, simply wrote that he proposed an exchange of securities and cash to the shareholders of the Zodiac. But he has not made any proposal encrypted. Saffron has a market capitalization of about 9 billion euros. The Zodiac is 2.4 billion.

For the moment, everybody sticks to his guns. The leaders disagree on everything. Zarrouati Olivier, CEO of Zodiac, ensures that the merger would have only "limited synergies" from the industrial and it would not "create value for shareholders of Zodiac.

The state voted for

Saffron, which produces both engines as landing systems, but rather emphasizes the importance of synergies."This merger, which we have thought for some time, makes sense for several reasons, technological and industrial pay day loan lenders. The major clients such as Airbus and Boeing want to work with a limited number of suppliers. The consolidations that have occurred recently demonstrated. There are also synergies in terms of after-sales services. Bringing after-sales services of both companies would share their infrastructure, "says Jean-Pierre Cojan.

Olivier Zarrouati observes that marriage between a heritage whose key shareholders are families Domange Marechal and Gerondeau and the ISP (about 5%), and Saffron which the state holds 30%, is doomed to failure."Safran has not demonstrated in the past its ability to integrate different corporate cultures," he says in an interview with Voices. "Saffron, which is a company that makes money, has demonstrated in the past how much he knew of successful mergers and acquisitions," argues Jean-Pierre Cojan. Saffron has certainly been significant difficulties for the successful merger decided in May 2005 between the public group Snecma and Sagem private enterprise. But he has found new life since the appointment of Jean-Paul Hertelman in September 2007 at the helm. And in a sector as sensitive as aeronautics, its acquisition strategy is approved by the State. When the supervisory board has agreed unanimously to a merger with Zodiac, the representatives of the state voted for.And while interest in the Zodiac, the group remains on the lookout for other acquisitions.

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