Capital News
GILDEMEISTER started its announced capital increase on 16 March. The board of the machine-tool manufacturer had decided the capital increase by €11,851,320 against cash contributions, with partial use of the authorized capital, by issuing new shares, representing approximately ten percent of current share capital. The 4,558,200 new shares cost €18.22 per share and were completely subscribed by Mori Seiki, to the exclusion of subscription rights of other shareholders. As the company further announced, the share capital was to be increased by a further €26.1 million. The securities can be subscribed between 29 March and 11 April. Mori Seiki and its subsidiaries have, according to Gildemeister, also committed to exercising their rights in this transaction. The Japanese major shareholder’s total holdings in Gildemeister thereby should not, however, exceed 20.1 percent. The Bielefeld MDAX-listed company intends to use the vast majority of the net proceeds from both capital increases (83 and around 130 million euros) to repay financial debt and thus strengthen its capital base.
According to a spokeswoman for the Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft [Munich Reinsurance Company], the forthcoming share repurchase will, given the multibillion burden from Japan, be put on ice for the time being. The programme will not start. "We will run the current programme until its end, at the Annual Meeting in April," the world's largest reinsurer announced on 23 March. The DAX Group had announced a new buyback programme worth up to €500 million at the beginning of February, to be completed by the April 2012 Annual General Meeting. Munich Re was aiming at a net profit of 2.4 billion euros in 2011.
Nordex pulled in 56 million euros at short notice on a capital increase by ten percent. The wind-turbine manufacturer had its capital increase, announced on 28 March, successfully completed by 29 March. The 6,684,499 new shares were placed under an accelerated procedure ("accelerated bookbuilding") at €8.40 per share. In order to hold up against larger competitors such as Vestas Wind or Siemens, Nordex plans to use the capital resources obtained to successfully strengthen its own products.