The Turin holding Exor, controlled by the Agnelli family, continues to cut superfluous branches. After sale of Aplitour and of the Brazilian bank BTP Pactual, Exor has begun the procedures to exit the French subsidiary Sequana, of which it is the largest shareholder with 28%. The Sequana paper group yesterday announced a capital increase of 150 million euros and at the same time Exor declared that it will only partially exercise the option rights it is entitled to, "in order to allow entry into the shareholding structure of the Company of the FSI, the Strategic Investment Fund controlled by the French state”.
The limited subscription will be able to dilute “Exor's stake in Sequana depending on the characteristics of the capital increase which will be defined in the next few days”. The details of the French group's capital increase will, in fact, be disclosed next week, but some sources close to the operation have announced that the dilution of Exor will in any case be substantial and that, once the capital increase is concluded, the Turin holding will no longer be the first shareholder of Sequana in favor of the FSI fund. This descent into the capital of Sequana will also be only the first step towards the total exit from the capital of the paper group which should materialize in the coming months.
At the same time as the operation, EXOR terminated the shareholders' agreement signed with DLMD in July 2010.
This morning, the Exor share lost almost 3% in Piazza Affari at 17,25 euros per share.
