Shareholders of Costa Rica’s homegrown household appliance giant, Atlas Eléctrica, Tuesday gave the green light to a buyout offer from a Mexican appliance company.
Mabe, a Mexican company whose largest minority shareholder is General Electric, offered early last month to purchase all of Atlas’ shares for $72 million (TT, Oct. 12).
Approval of the bid inquiry means Mabe has until Nov. 21 to make the bid official. The sale would be completed by January of next year.
Atlas is one of the largest kitchen appliance manufactures in Central America. Its Atlas and Centron brands hold 50% or more of the market share throughout the region, and last year the company pulled in some $111.6 million in sales.
Mabe has 15 manufacturing plants located throughout the Americas. Its partnership with GE helps its exports to the United States. Annually the company posts around $2.2 billion in sales.
Representatives of both companies have said the Atlas plant, which is located in Costa Rica and employs 1,300 Ticos, will continue to operate.
