Baan risks bankruptcy if bid fails

AMSTERDAM: Beleaguered Dutch software group Baan could go bankrupt if the

takeover bid by Britain's Invensys fails, board members said on Thursday.

Baan CEO Pierre Everaert told a conference call that board members had said

at a shareholders meeting earlier that bankruptcy will be the worst-case

scenario if the offer did not succeed.

Some shareholders attending the meeting said they did not believe the offer

would get the 95 per cent shareholder acceptance needed for its success.

Everaert confirmed that bankruptcy was last of the four possible options for

Baan, should the Invensys bid fail.

Industrial controls group Invensys is offering Euro $762 million in cash and

has agreed to take on Euro $100 million in net debt.

If Invensys' offer fails, auditors PriceWaterhouseCoopers are "likely to

issue a negative 'going concern' opinion in the 1999 audited accounts" to

be filed by July 15 and the Amsterdam bourse was likely to impose "special

listing conditions," Baan said in a presentation to the shareholders

meeting.

Baan said on June 6 that it had a negative equity position but the bourse

waived imposing a special listing–which means the company's expulsion from the

main AEX index–as long as Invensys' bid went unconditional in eight weeks.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.