€39 per share: Steyr Motors boards recommend accepting Red Cat offer
Key Facts
Steyr Motors’ Management Board and Supervisory Board recommended that shareholders accept Red Cat’s cash takeover offer of €39.00 per share, according to a company statement published on November 2, 2026. The boards said they consider the price "fair, appropriate and attractive," and that the offer is in the interests of the company, its employees and shareholders. They unanimously approved their reasoned statement on October 30, 2026, before the recommendation was published. The recommendation follows an assessment of the price and offer terms, but does not determine the transaction’s outcome. Completion remains conditional on meeting a minimum acceptance threshold and obtaining regulatory approvals in several countries.
According to Steyr, the offer price is 28.9% above its share’s Xetra closing price of €30.26 on October 16, 2026, the last trading day before the offer was announced. The price gives shareholders fixed cash consideration of €39.00 per share, including 2026 dividends, according to the offer details in the statement. The company also said a fairness opinion from audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that the price was financially fair. In its initial announcement of the offer, Steyr said the price was 55.8% above the share’s 52-week low. The proposed price is therefore above both trading benchmarks cited by the company, which cover different measurement periods.
The offer has secured an undertaking from major shareholder B&C Holding Österreich to tender 780,000 shares, contractually securing about 15% of the share capital, according to Steyr’s statement. Chief Executive Julian Cassutti said he supports the offer and will tender his shares, adding: "I fully support this offer and will therefore tender my shares." The offer is valued at about €205 million and targets the acquisition of 5,251,261 shares, according to Red Cat’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The acceptance period remains open until December 18, 2026, at 5 p.m. Central European Time, with the possibility of an extension of up to 16 weeks. The offer document was published on October 22, 2026, on a dedicated transaction website, according to the filing.
The offer can be completed only if acceptance reaches at least 50% plus one share, according to Red Cat’s filing. It also requires foreign investment approvals in Austria, Australia, Italy and the United Kingdom, to be issued by June 30, 2027. These conditions make the minimum shareholder participation and government approvals critical to completing the transaction. The offer is being carried out by SMOT Acquisition, a Red Cat subsidiary. Red Cat is a U.S. company listed on Nasdaq that provides drone and robotics solutions for defense and national security. Steyr shares are listed in the Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and on the Vienna Stock Exchange’s Direct Market Plus, according to the same filing.
Under a business agreement signed on October 21, 2026, Red Cat undertook to retain Steyr’s headquarters, production, research and development at the company’s site, as well as maintain existing agreements and the current composition of the Management Board. The commitments include protecting technical employees from layoffs for operational reasons for two years after the agreement. Steyr manufactures engines for defense and civilian applications, used in defense vehicles, boats, auxiliary power units for tanks and locomotives. Red Cat, meanwhile, works on aircraft and robotic systems solutions, and the companies said combining their technologies could create further development opportunities in unmanned maritime vehicles. The takeover offer comes as Steyr announced on October 22 that third-quarter 2026 revenue grew 11.2%, while it maintained its forecast for fiscal-year revenue growth of between 15% and 25% and an earnings before interest and taxes margin of between 8% and 12%.