SoftwareOne shareholders scrap agreement to sell company to Bain

ZURICH (Reuters) - The founding shareholders of SoftwareOne have scrapped their agreement with U.S. investor Bain Capital to buy the Swiss IT services company, they said on Monday.

Daniel von Stockar, B. Curti Holding AG and René Gilli, who together hold 29% of SoftwareOne, last month tried to oust the board to revive an effort to delist the firm through a sale to Bain.

The three shareholders "have decided to dissolve the group acting in concert between them and Bain Capital and terminate their underlying agreement," they said in a statement.

"Since the current Board of Directors of SoftwareOne rejected Bain Capital's latest offer in January 2024, it has been clear that there is no scope for a going-private transaction under the current circumstances," the group said in a statement.

Bain declined to comment.

SoftwareOne's board rejected a non-binding offer of 18.50 francs per share, worth about 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($3.28 billion) last year.

In mid-January, after examining its options, SoftwareOne decided it wanted to remain independent.

The investors on Monday said they still wanted an extraordinary general meeting to make changes to the company's board and believed SoftwareOne would perform better as a private company.

($1 = 0.8833 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by Rachel More)