Elliott Builds Stake in Capgemini's Takeover Target Altran

(Bloomberg) -- Elliott Management Corp. has built a position in Altran Technologies SA, the French software company that agreed last month to be acquired by Capgemini SE for 3.6 billion euros ($4 billion).

The New York-based hedge fund has bought about 5.1 million equity swaps in Altran through its European subsidiary, Elliott Capital Advisors, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. Elliott doesn’t have any immediate plans to tender the shares that it could acquire via the swaps, it said in the filing.

Three institutional investors in Paris-based Altran, who combined own at least 2% of the company, said they don’t plan to tender their shares because they view the offer as too low. They asked not to be identified discussing their views on the bid.

“The board of directors has recommended the offer because it’s a good opportunity for all of the shareholders,” said Stephanie Bia, a spokeswoman for Altran.

A representative for Elliott declined to comment. Capgemini didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Capgemini agreed to pay 14 euros a share in cash to acquire Altran in June. Shares in Altran rose 1.8% to close at 14.36 euros on Friday in Paris trading.

The combined company will be able to help clients in areas such as cloud computing, 5G and artificial intelligence software, Capgemini Chief Executive Officer Paul Hermelin said in a statement announcing the deal. The combination of the two companies would result in a group with 17 billion euros in annual revenue and more than 250,000 employees.

To contact the reporters on this story: Scott Deveau in New York at sdeveau2@bloomberg.net;Jan-Henrik Förster in London at jforster20@bloomberg.net;Myriam Balezou in London at mbalezou@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Liana Baker at lbaker75@bloomberg.net, ;Dinesh Nair at dnair5@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson

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