WALTHAM (dpa-AFX) - U.S. financial investor Bain Capital is not letting up on Software AG. It is prepared to pay up to 36 euros per share under certain conditions, Rocket Software, which is controlled by the Americans, announced on Tuesday evening. This includes the sale or other transfer to Rocket of the securities currently held by technology investor Silver Lake and major shareholder Software AG Foundation. Silver Lake had raised its initial bid from €30 to €32 a few days ago and enjoys the support of the board, supervisory board and foundation.

Initially, they intend to offer Software AG shareholders 34 euros per share certificate, Rocket further announced, confirming a few days old circle report by news agency Bloomberg. In the event that Silver Lake and the foundation support the proposed business combination at a value of 36 euros per share by selling or otherwise transferring their shares to Rocket Software, the offer price would be increased accordingly to 36 euros per share. In this case, the minimum acceptance threshold would be 62.5 percent of the total share capital of the Company, which would allow Rocket to enter into a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement upon completion of the proposed transaction.

In the event that Silver Lake and the Foundation did not support the business combination by selling or otherwise transferring their shares to Rocket, the offer price would remain at 34 euros, but the minimum acceptance threshold would automatically be lowered to 40 percent. Should Rocket come to the final decision that an acceptance threshold of approximately 62.5 percent could not be reached prior to the formal announcement of a takeover offer, it would be prepared to make the takeover offer in a simplified form, i.e. with an offer price of 34.00 euros per share and a fixed minimum acceptance threshold of 40 percent.

Software AG's share price on the Tradegate trading platform rose 2.1 percent from the closing price in the main Xetra trading session to 33.80 euros./he/la