HELSINKI/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Fortum (HE:FORTUM) has no plans to raise its 8.05 billion euro (7.10 billion pounds) offer for Germany's Uniper (DE:UN01), the Finnish group's chief executive said on Tuesday, adding he saw any rival bid for the German group as unlikely.
"We will not raise the offer price. This is our last, best and final offer," Lundmark said in webcast comments after Fortum published its official takeover offer, which will run until Jan. 16.
Fortum is offering 22 euros per share for Uniper and in September struck a preliminary deal to buy E.ON's (DE:EONGn) 46.65 percent stake it still holds in Uniper following a spin-off last year.
If E.ON does not tender its stake by Jan. 11, it may have to pay a compensation of up to 1.5 billion euros to Fortum, the Finnish group said, suggesting any rival bid would have to be substantially above 22 euros to change E.ON's mind.
Under German takeover rules, Fortum has to make an offer for all of Uniper, whose shares are currently trading around 24 euros per share and were indicated to open unchanged after it said nine-month operating profit fell by nearly a quarter.
Uniper Chief Executive Klaus Schaefer, who is opposed to the deal, said the company would carefully examine Fortum's submitted offer and comment on it within the next two weeks. He said shareholders should "refrain from accepting" the offer until then.
Uniper is concerned that Fortum would eventually be looking to break up the group due to strategic differences. Lundmark said Fortum had no such plans.