Household appliances maker Gorenje said on Thursday that Panasonic, which looked at making a bid for the Slovenian company earlier this year, had decided against a takeover deal.
“After considering market conditions, Gorenje’s present ownership structure and an analysis of due diligence results we decided that increasing a stake in Gorenje is not in line with the present investment strategy of Panasonic Corporation,” head of Panasonic Tetsura Homme said in a message to Gorenje.
Panasonic already has a stake of 10.74% in Gorenje and plans to continue its business cooperation with the company in various areas, Gorenje said. It also said Panasonic’s decision would not influence business goals or its further development.
Gorenje’s products include ovens and washing machines and it has a market capitalisation of about 211 million euros.
It also said it expected to end 2016 with a group net profit of 7.6 million euros ($8.3 million), up from a profit of 4.1 million euros in the first nine months of the year. Gorenje ended 2015 with a loss of 8 million euros.
It said sales rose to 900.9 million euros in the first nine months of the year, up by 2.9% compared to the same period of 2015, mainly on account of higher sales of small household appliances and higher margin appliances.
Gorenje’s shares did not trade on Thursday as the Ljubljana stock exchange halted trading in the stock in expectation of a company announcement following its supervisory board meeting.
Analysts said the shares could fall significantly in the coming weeks as they had risen by about 31% since July 25 when a possible takeover of Gorenje by Panasonic was announced.
The blue-chip SBI index rose by 3.7% in the same period.
