Bosch makes public tender offer to ersol shareholders

Following approval by BaFin, the German Financial Supervisory Authority, Bosch has issued its tender offer document for the outstanding shares of ersol Solar Energy AG of Erfurt, Germany. Under the terms of the voluntary public takeover offer, the purchase price is 101.00 euros (about $158) per share. The offer period started July 4, and is scheduled to expire on Aug. 8, 2008.

Bosch announced its plan to acquire ersol at the beginning of June.

The German antitrust authorities have already given their unqualified approval to the acquisition of ersol by Bosch. The approval of other antitrust authorities is still pending. The takeover offer, as well as the acquisition of 50.45 percent of the shares from the majority shareholder Ventizz, cannot be consummated until this approval is granted. Other shareholders holding a 3.56 percent stake in ersol have already undertaken to sell their shares to Bosch once the tender offer is made. In addition, Bosch has already acquired a further 27.72 percent of the shares in ersol on the stock exchange.

Subject to the decision of the supervisory board of ersol Solar Energy, and following acquisition of a majority shareholding, Holger von Hebel and Volker Nadenau are to be appointed members of the ersol board of management. Von Hebel is currently senior VP of finance and controlling in the Bosch packaging technology division. Nadenau is VP of the Bosch business development team photovoltaics.

ersol Solar Energy develops, manufactures, and sells wafer-based silicon solar cells, and is moving into the manufacture of thin-film modules.

With this acquisition, Bosch hopes to strengthen its business in the area of renewable energies.