(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bahn AG said bids submitted after the deadline by private equity fund CVC Capital Partners Plc. remain “inferior” to the winner’s offer, the latest twist in the €14.3 billion ($16 billion) battle for its logistics unit.
Denmark’s DSV A/S agreed on Sept. 13 to buy DB Schenker in a deal that would create the world’s largest freight-forwarder. But the transaction is still pending final approvals from Deutsche Bahn as well as the German state, and at least one local labor union has since objected to DSV’s takeover. Meanwhile CVC, which lost out in the final stage, has tried to derail the deal by airing new bids.
After the deadline, CVC filed new offers, which “were improved in marginal areas but never fundamentally, and were always inferior to the successful offer from DSV,” Deutsche Bahn said in a statement on Monday, responding to media inquiries.
EVG, one of Deutsche Bahn’s labor unions will try to block the deal at a Wednesday supervisory board meeting, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported over the weekend. However, while the company’s supervisory board is equally split between labor and shareholder representatives, EVG alone doesn’t have the power to torpedo the deal, according to FAZ.
“DSV clearly submitted the best binding offer at every point in the process,” the rail company said in Monday’s statement.
--With assistance from Alexander Weber.
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