EQS-News: Klöckner & Co SE confirms announcement of a voluntary public takeover offer by SWOCTEM GmbH

Duisburg, Germany, March 13, 2023 – The Management Board of Klöckner & Co SE has noted the announcement by SWOCTEM GmbH of its intention to make a voluntary public takeover offer for the whole issued share capital of Klöckner & Co SE at a price of €9.75 in cash per share. The company will comment separately on the offer, particularly with regard to the offer price and other terms, at a later time.

SWOCTEM GmbH, whose owner is Mr. Prof. Dr. E.h. Friedhelm Loh, is by far the largest shareholder of Klöckner & Co SE. The Management Board of the company welcomes the fact that Mr. Prof. Dr. E.h. Friedhelm Loh, as long-term oriented investor and a long-standing member of the Supervisory Board, supports the Management Board of Klöckner & Co SE in the successful implementation of its strategy “Klöckner & Co 2025: Leveraging Strengths” and that he underlines his interest in the long-term successful development of the company with the announcement.

As part of the announcement of the voluntary public takeover offer, SWOCTEM GmbH has informed that it will increase its existing shareholding in Klöckner & Co SE to over 30%. Thereby, SWOCTEM GmbH wants to obtain more flexibility for future share purchases. However, SWOCTEM GmbH declares that it does not intend to acquire a majority stake in Klöckner & Co SE. The Company shall remain listed on the stock exchange.

In case of a successful offer, a shareholding of SWOCTEM GmbH of more than 30% will provide the company, from the Management Board's point of view, with additional flexibility, e.g., to execute share buybacks.

The Management Board and the Supervisory Board are evaluating the situation and will inform the shareholders in their reasoned statement about the assessment of the offer and its conditions in a timely manner after submission of the offer document. Shareholders of Klöckner & Co SE should in view of the company wait for the publication of this statement and should not take any actions regarding the takeover offer of SWOCTEM GmbH in the meantime.

About Klöckner & Co:

Klöckner & Co is one of the largest producer-independent distributors of steel and metal products and one of the leading steel service companies worldwide. Based on its distribution and service network of around 150 locations in 13 countries, Klöckner & Co supplies more than 90,000 customers. Currently, the Group has around 7,300 employees. In the financial year 2022, Klöckner & Co generated sales of around €9.4 billion. By expanding its portfolio of CO₂-reduced materials, services and logistics under the new umbrella brand Nexigen^®, the company is underlining its ambition as a pioneer of a sustainable steel industry. At the same time, as a pioneer of the digital transformation in the steel industry, Klöckner & Co has set the goal of digitalizing and largely automating its supply and service chain. In this way, the company aims to become the leading one-stop shop for steel, other materials, equipment and processing services in Europe and the Americas.

The shares of Klöckner & Co SE are admitted to trading on the regulated market segment (Regulierter Markt) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) with further post-admission obligations (Prime Standard). Klöckner & Co shares are listed in the SDAX^® index of Deutsche Börse.

ISIN: DE000KC01000; WKN: KC0100; Common Code: 025808576.

Contact Klöckner & Co SE:

Press
Christian Pokropp – Press Spokesperson
Head of Corporate Communications | Head of Group HR
+49 203 307-2050
[email protected]

Investors
Felix Schmitz
Head of Investor Relations I Head of Strategic Sustainability
+49 203 307-2295
[email protected]