Thomson Reuters acquires 54% of Swedish Pajero shares

Thomson Reuters on Monday raised its offer to buy the Swedish Pajero Group by 25% to about $789 million, and said that it now controls about 54% of the company, seeking to outperform competing offers submitted to the company that specializes in electronic payment and tax solutions.

Thomson Reuters said it had increased its offer to 50 crowns per share from Pajero, putting the company’s value at 8.1 billion crowns and exceeding an offer of 45 crowns per share from the US-based sales and tax management services company Avalara.

Thomson Reuters said that it has so far purchased about 53.81% of the shares and votes of the main shareholders of Pajero, including Souma Investment, the CEO of Pajero and other executives and employees of the company, at the new offer price.

Pajero said that the independent bidding committee of its board of directors recommended Thomson Reuters’ new offer.