Wallis enters stock exchange by acquiring Altera

As the first step in a series of transactions reported last week, Wallis Asset Management (Wallis) purchased 23.33% of Altera’s ordinary shares, making Wallis the biggest owner of Altera. Wallis and entities acting in alignment with Wallis also made an offer to purchase all of Altera’s shares, while Altera will acquire ownership of four companies currently owned by Wallis and its management by increasing Altera’s capital with contributions in kind, the press release confirmed.

Wallis (and the entities acting in alignment with it) submitted their public bid to the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) for approval Wednesday, whereby they will purchase all of Altera’s shares for the volume-weighted average price of the last 180 days (based on legal regulations), i.e. HUF 520.25 per share.  

Following the conclusion of the first stage, the second step of the transaction will involve Altera acquiring 100% ownership of Wallis Group’s four automotive trading and service provider companies by way of increasing its capital by HUF 15.8 billion of in-kind contributions based on the decision of Altera’s board of directors.

Zoltán Prutkay, chairman and CEO of Altera Plc., said that after the reorganization - calculating with the current share price of nearly HUF 900, equity of approximately HUF 30 billion, and sales revenues of nearly HUF 70 bln - Altera will become one of the most important companies listed on the exchange, and the objective is for its shares to become included in the Premium category. It is currently listed in the Equities Standard section.

In future, Altera said it will focus on investments in the automotive sector and further dynamic growth. Its goal is to strengthen its position and increase its market share in Hungary and the Central and East European region, and to access more favorable financing sources necessary to fund such goals by means of its presence on the stock exchange.