Swiss Life Asset Managers and Vauban Infrastructure Partners have proposed the acquisition of wagon leasing company Aves One, and following a successful takeover intend to provide additional capital of €100m to optimise the capital structure and finance further growth.

The deal would be worth €12·80 per share, a premium of 38·6% to the volume-weighted average share price of the previous three months and giving a total enterprise value of approximately €1bn.

Shareholders holding more than 85% of the stock have committed to tender their shares, and the Aves One management and supervisory boards support the planned offer.

The largest individual shareholders in Aves One are the founding shareholder and Hamburg investor Jörn Reinecke with around 29%, the pension fund of the Berlin Chamber of Dentists with around 21% and the pension fund of the Nordrhein Chamber of Dentists with around 15%.

Aves One owns more than 11 000 wagons of various types, which represent around 94% of its total assets.

‘We have more than tripled our asset portfolio to nearly €800m over the past five years’, said management board member Tobias Aulich on August 6. ‘With Swiss Life Asset Managers and Vauban Infrastructure Partners as well-funded investors, we intend to continue our dynamic growth. The investor agreement includes a strong commitment to our growth path and our strategic focus on the promising rail market.’

Macquarie Capital is acting as sole financial adviser and Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek as legal adviser to Aves One.