UPDATE 1 — Schneider to launch €1.2 billion takeover bid for smart device firm Shelly

(Updates with expected deal closure in paragraph 2, premium and founders' stake in paragraphs 3-4, background in paragraph 5) Sept 24 (Reuters) — France's Schneider Electric said on Thursday it intended to launch a voluntary public takeover offer for Bulgarian smart-home device maker Shelly Group for €70 per share. The all-cash offer values Shelly at about €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) and is expected to close by the first quarter of 2027, Schneider said in a statement. The offer price represents a 27% premium to Shelly's unaffected reference price as of July 28, and is 22% above its current reference price. Shelly's two founders, Dimitar Dimitrov and Svetlin Todorov, hold roughly 57% of the share capital between them. Both have conditionally agreed to sell. The deal would push Schneider deeper into the connected home market, where it competes with French rival Legrand, Sweden's Plejd and Switzerland's ABB. ($1 = 0.8790 euros) (Reporting by Danny Callaghan, Nathan Vifflin in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak) ((Email: danny.callaghan@thomsonreuters.com; mailto:nathan.vifflin@thomsonreuters.com)