DUISBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp (DE:TKAG) is expected to keep a sizeable minority stake in the capital goods business it plans to spin off, a labour representative said - a move that could set the unit up for a takeover bid once the conglomerate chooses to sell out.
Last week, Thyssenkrupp announced plans to split off its elevators, car parts and plant engineering divisions into Thyssenkrupp Industrials, only keeping materials and steel-related activities.
As part of the plan, Thyssenkrupp - to be renamed Thyssenkrupp Materials - will keep a minority stake in the spun-off entity which it plans to sell in a timely manner once the deal gets rubber-stamped by shareholders.
That minority stake will likely be around 30 percent, Tekin Nasikkol, head of the works council of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe and a member of Thyssenkrupp's supervisory board, told journalists on Thursday.
Nasikkol said the stake, which he reckons could be worth several billion euros, might be sold in one go or in several stages.
If acquired by a single party, buying a stake of 30 percent or more would trigger a full takeover offer under Germany's takeover law. That was, for example, the case with Fortum's (HE:FORTUM) purchase of E.ON's (DE:EONGn) 47 percent stake in Uniper (DE:UN01).