Investors await key AkzoNobel court ruling

A Dutch court will Monday hand down a ruling which could alter the future of the world's leading paintmaker AkzoNobel, in the throes of fighting a takeover by a US rival.

Disgruntled investors, frustrated that the Dutch company has rejected three offers from Pittsburgh-based coatings firm PPG, are seeking to force a shareholders meeting to try to smooth the path of a takeover.

Led by activist investor Elliott Advisors, they have urged the Dutch Enterprise Chamber to rule in their favour and allow them to organise a meeting to vote on whether to oust AkzoNobel's chairman of the board, Antony Burgmans, seen as the main obstacle to the PPG bid.

The Amsterdam-based tribunal will hand down its judgement on Monday at 1600 GMT after the close of European stock markets.

AkzoNobel, whose best-known brands include Dulux and Trimetal, earlier this month snubbed a third takeover offer by PPG -- which valued the company at around 24.6 billion euros ($27 billion).

By assuming the company's debts and minority interests, the total value of the transaction would come to 26.9 billion euros, PPG said.

AkzoNobel maintained the PPG bid undervalued the group and "contained significant risks and uncertainties" as well as failing to provide guarantees for its 46,000 workers.

It has also stood by Burgmans, saying his dismissal would be "irresponsible, disproportionate (and) damaging".

But PPG has argued that a takeover would create "extraordinary value and benefits for all of AkzoNobel’s stakeholders".

PPG's chief executive Michael McGarry said last week the company preferred to negotiate a multi-billion-euro takeover of AkzoNobel, rather than mounting a hostile bid.

"PPG remains very interested in persuing a consensual, privately negotiated, substantive deal with AkzoNobel," he told journalists in Amsterdam.

He said PPG's board was likely to meet Tuesday to discuss the chamber's decision. 

Under Dutch financial laws, PPG has until Thursday, June 1, to decide whether to mount a formal bid for AkzoNobel or walk away for a six-month "cooling-off" period.

Based in Amsterdam, AkzoNobel was formed in 1994 from the merger of the Dutch and Swedish firms Akzo and Nobel.