Swiss bank UBS cuts stake in Umicore

Archiv – Swiss banking group UBS has cut its stake in Belgian speciality materials maker and recycler Umicore to 2.16% from 5.7%, according to a declaration to Euronext Stock Exchange in Brussel. According to a Reuters news report, with no major reference shareholder, Umicore is regularly mentioned as a possible takeover target. Belgium | Swiss banking group UBS has cut its stake in Belgian speciality materials maker and recycler Umicore to 2.16% from 5.7%, according to a declaration to Euronext Stock Exchange in Brussel. According to a Reuters news report, with no major reference shareholder, Umicore is regularly mentioned as a possible takeover target.
In an interview in Belgian financial daily L’Echo, Chief Executive Thomas Leysen says his company was in theory at the mercy of a hostile takeover. ’Umicore was the first Belgian company that took the challenge to operate with a free float of 100 percent … I hope that one day I won’t regret it,’ he said. Umicore has completed a strategic repositioning as a materials technology company after last year spinning off Nyrstar, its zinc smelting joint venture created with Australia’s Zinifex.
Recently the specialty materials group’s faced a sharp share price fall following full-year results that disappointed the market expectations.
’I am not unduly concerned by one-day stock market movement. We have always had a history of doing better than expected. Only doing as well as expected is a disappointment for some,’ Leysen says. ’These are the best results in our history.’ He says the group has ’credibility’ with its shareholders but admitted that the company is always a takeover target. ’If someone comes in with a premium… that is a fact of life,’ he adds.
Recurring EBIT for the full year rose to 359.1 mln eur from 329.2 mln eur, below the 361.0-380.8 mln expected by the market. The figure was in line with the company’s target for the upper end of a 345.0-365.0 mln range. Sales came in at 8.31 bln eur from 8.21 bln, boosted by the performance of its precious metals products/catalysts and zinc specialties.