Software firm Aveva agrees to £9.5bn full buyout by France’s Schneider

UK software firm Aveva Group has agreed to a full buyout by its major shareholder, French energy and automation company Schneider Electric, in a deal that values the firm at £9.5 billion.

Shares in Cambridge-based Aveva, which has more than 6,400 employees, will be priced at £31 in the deal which is expected to be completed in the first three months of 2023.

It means Schneider will acquire around 40% of the shares it does not already own in the FTSE 100 firm.

Schneider, which has around 4,000 staff in the UK, said taking full ownership of Aveva will help the business grow by combining its own energy proposition with Aveva’s process data and software.

The group confirmed it has no plans to make material changes to Aveva’s employee base and intends to keep its culture as a software business.

Schneider said the buyout represents a premium of about 41% to the closing price of £22 per Aveva share on August 23, the final day before the offer was made.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chief executive of Schneider Electric, said: “We are proud of Aveva’s track record in the UK, one of Schneider Electric’s most important and strategic markets, and will maintain its headquarters in Cambridge, allowing us to continue to benefit from the region’s thriving technology community.

“The strong combination of Aveva’s data platform and specialised applications with Schneider Electric’s energy expertise will offer customers tangible gains in all aspects of safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability.”

Philip Aiken, Aveva’s chairman, said: “Schneider Electric has been a supportive shareholder and partner in the strategic development of Aveva since 2018, most recently in the acquisition of Osisoft, and I am confident that Schneider Electric will continue to build on that legacy in the future.”

Shares in Aveva were up by around 2% on Wednesday morning.