The move comes just three months after it failed in a $570m bid to acquire French systems integrator GFI Informatique, whose management team refused to back the offer after declaring it too low.
However, Mandator’s board of directors are recommending Fujistu’s SEK 3 ($0.46) cash per share offer, which represents a 30% premium over the volume weighted average trading price of Mandator’s shares in the ten trading days prior to the announcement of the offer.
Mandator has 560 employees that provide systems integration, project management, application development and testing services with clients including Post Danmark, Volvo and Saab. Some 390 of its workforce are based in its domestic market, with 100 at a near-shore delivery center in Estonia and the remainder in the UK and Denmark.
In the first half of this year, Mandator posted a slight rise in net profit to SEK 10m ($1.5m) from SEK 9m ($1.4m), on sales that rose 15% to SEK 284m ($44m). CEO Katarina Mellstrom expressed disappointment with the profitability of several areas of the business and invested SEK 4m ($613,500) during the second quarter on restructuring.
Fujitsu Services is already a key player in the Finnish IT services market through its Fujitsu Services Oy subsidiary, which has some 2,300 staff in Finland and the Baltic states, and made sales of 318m euros ($447m) in the year ending March 31, 2007.
