Aveva falls into hands of French

tHe french conglomerate that bought up uK engineering champion Invensys last year is poised to swoop for another British firm.

A £1.3bn deal will see Schneider electric take over Britain’s Aveva, meaning the software maker will be the latest technology firm to be snapped up by a foreign buyer.

Although Aveva is larger than Schneider, the french group will end up in control in what is known as a ‘reverse takeover’.

A long line of deals have seen some of Britain’s largest technology groups taken abroad.

earlier this year data centre provider telecity was bought by uS rival equinix for £2.4bn, while uS chip giant Qualcomm last year snapped up uK peer CSr for £1.6bn.

Before that Misys, logica and Autonomy were all bought by overseas groups.

Aveva has struggled in the last year because almost half of its business is in oil and gas.

Profits and revenues fell by double-digits in its last annual results, which sparked suggestions that it had become a bid target.

Possible buyers were mooted to be emerson and General electric as well as Schneider.

Aveva’s shares halved between late 2013 and the start of this year, as falling global energy prices squeezed the business.

Shares yesterday rose by almost a third to finish 484p higher at 2256p – a level not reached since the middle of last year.

under the terms of the deal, Aveva will buy Schneider’s software arm.

It will then receive £550m from Schneider in exchange for fresh Aveva shares that will give it control of 53.5pc of the enlarged company.

the combined business will have sales of more than £500m and profits of £130m.

the deal will reduce Aveva’s exposure to oil and gas and give it a foothold in other markets where Schneider currently operates such as chemicals, mining and drugs.