Yeah, that’s why I bolded that part intentionally. However, I’m not particularly good at interpreting legal texts and regulations, so I wouldn’t bet the farm on S-Bank not having been able to acquire shares already. Anyway, this is mostly a side plot in the saga, and the real meat of the matter is here:
I consider it likely that the deal will go through, as the terms of the tender offer are good. Your observation that there is a risk of the deal being blocked is valid, however, even if I didn’t assign it much weight in my analysis.
I am a bit at odds with you on this point, however. In my view, the price offered already includes an assumption of a clearly improving profit level and outlook. Therefore, I don’t see that waiting a few years would improve the negotiating position so much that the price would be substantially higher than what is being offered now. Of course, the development could ultimately be much better than I expect, in which case the share price would surely follow that.
So, from an economic perspective, I wouldn’t consider the foundations dragging their feet to be justified, but of course, throughout human history, decisions have been made based on all sorts of premises. At the same time, I admit that I don’t really understand the decision-making processes or goals of foundations. If this deal were to fall through because of that, I would personally categorize it under the category of settling old scores that you brought up.