Advent Seeks to Buy Swiss Chipmaker U-blox in $1.3 Billion Deal
(Bloomberg) — Advent International offered to buy U-blox Holding AG, a Swiss maker of positioning chips, in a deal valued at about 1.05 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion).
Advent’s cash offer of 135 Swiss francs per share, while representing a 53% premium over volume-weighted averages of the last six months, is less than U-blox’s closing price of 138.60 Swiss francs on Friday.
U-blox shares jumped almost 25% on Friday after Bloomberg News reported on the potential transaction, marking their biggest one-day gain since August 2022. The shares are up about 90% this year.
Assuming a 21-day offer period, the acceptance window would run until about Oct. 29, Advent said in a statement.
It’s the latest private equity move into undervalued European stocks, which includes recent bids by Nordic Capital and Permira for Danish vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic. For Advent, U-blox would be the latest in a string of European targets, after deals involving Spectris Plc and Tinexta SpA.
U-blox, which designs chips and modules for positioning technology used in cars, drones, and consumer devices, recently shed its loss-making cellular business. U-blox CEO Stephan Zizalads has said the company’s focus is shifting toward automated driving and mobile robotics.
–With assistance from Susanne Barton.
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