The RAG Foundation can imagine an increase in the stake in thyssenkrupp Elevator.
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“If Advent and Cinven want to get out in a few years, we can expand our share,” said Bernd Tönjes, head of the Rheinische Post Foundation. “But we can also take part in a change of ownership. One thing is clear: we don’t have the wallet to buy the majority.”
Despite the Corona crisis, the foundation is sticking to the recently agreed entry. “The growth of metropolises is a megatrend that Corona will not reverse, and elevator manufacturers will benefit from this,” said Tönjes. The service business, with which the company generates a large part of its sales, had “already proven stable” in the great financial crisis of 2008.
At the end of February, the RAG-Foundation signed a purchase contract for the profitable elevator business of thyssenkrupp as a junior partner with the financial investors Advent and Cinven for 17.2 billion euros.
Tönjes told the newspaper that the RAG Foundation wanted to remain a major shareholder in the chemical company Evonik. “I don’t see Evonik as a lump risk,” he said. For 2019, the foundation will again receive a dividend – “this time around 316 million euros. That alone is enough to cover the annual costs of almost 300 million euros,” said Tönjes. “Investors appreciate that Evonik has a strong anchor shareholder. We want to remain a significant shareholder of Evonik in the long term.”
The foundation recently reduced its Evonik stake to 58.9 percent.
DJG / rio
Dow Jones Newswires
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