SHARE
COPY LINK

BUSINESS

Bang & Olufsen shares soar on news of buyout

Denmark could lose one of its best-known global brands after Bang & Olufsen reported that it may be partially or completely sold.

Bang & Olufsen shares soar on news of buyout
B&O's production facility in Struer. Photo: Henning Bagger/Scanpix
Shares in Bang & Olufsen, the Danish firm that produces upmarket sound systems and high-end televisions, soared on Thursday after the company said it was in talks with a potential buyer.
 
The news was music to investor's ears, sending the firm's shares up by more than 25 percent on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange in afternoon trading, in a slightly firmer overall market.
 
“The company has initiated a dialogue to investigate and analyse the firmness of these approaches,” it said in a statement, without giving any further details.
 
Bang & Olufsen has posted annual losses over the past three fiscal years as more people listen to music on their mobile devices and after failing to attract younger consumers.
 
Its two biggest shareholders are Dutch insurer Delta Lloyd, which holds a 14.7 percent stake, and Danish pension fund ATP, which holds 12.4 percent.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ENVIRONMENT

Sweden’s SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå 

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: 

The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa. 

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology. 

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces. 

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

SHOW COMMENTS