DaimlerChrysler was ordered by a German court yesterday to pay some former Daimler-Benz AG shareholders more money in a dispute over the valuation of their stock in the 1998 merger with Chrysler.
The Stuttgart court ruled that the world's fifth-biggest carmaker should pay an extra €22.15 per share to investors who were forced to tender their stock in the merger, a court spokesman said yesterday.
"We consider the ruling inappropriate and we will take legal action against it," a DaimlerChrysler spokesman said.
DaimlerChrysler had opposed an earlier proposal that it settle the case by paying the investors an extra €19 per share, or nearly €200 million. Its shares fell as low as €40.33 before recovering to trade down 1.1 per cent at €40.95 by 1040 GMT, while the DJ Stoxx European car sector index retreated 0.7 per cent.
"Let's say this (payment) is €230 million. Even if they have made no reserves - and I imagine they have already covered the bulk of this with reserves - and the entire sum has a negative impact on earnings, you get to 23 cents per share and that is not really significant," said DZ Bank analyst Tim Schuldt.
A Frankfurt share trader agreed. "At first glance it was negative of course. At second glance it was of negligible value," he said. Holders of 1.8 per cent of Daimler-Benz shares exchanged their stock involuntarily and some of them sought compensation in 1999, contending the ratio used in the exchange did not properly value their stock.
DaimlerChrysler has insisted the exchange ratio was fair.
DZ's Schuldt said he did not think the case would have any impact on a pending US lawsuit by billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian over how the merger was handled.
Kerkorian has appealed against a US court ruling dismissing his $1 billion lawsuit that accused Daimler-Benz of misrepresenting the deal as a merger rather than a takeover.
Kerkorian was Chrysler's largest investor at the time of the link-up. He contends that Juergen Schrempp, DaimlerChrysler's former chief executive, only called the transaction a merger of equals to lower the price and avoid paying a control premium.
A US federal court judge in Delaware ruled against Kerkorian in April 2005.