Ontario laser firm's stock stays firm as takeover bid dies
Virtek three-month chart
Virtek Vision International, an industrial laser company based in Waterloo, Ont., saw its share price slip just a cent Friday after it announced a ceasefire in a takeover battle launched by a U.S. competitor.
The stock had peaked at 95 cents last week, up 51 cents since the fight began. It closed at 89 cents Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down from 90 cents Thursday.
StockerYale Inc. of Salem, N.H., had offered 65 cents a share for Virtek in May and raised the offer to 80 cents last month, putting a value of about $29 million on the Canadian company.
In a terse statement Friday, Virtek noted that the offer expired at 11:59 p.m. Monday.
"The minimum tender condition of 66 2/3 per cent of the shares was not realized and StockerYale has said that any shares tendered will be returned to Virtek shareholders," it said. "Virtek previously announced that its board of directors unanimously rejected as inadequate the unsolicited StockerYale bid."
The market price, still firmly higher than the unsuccessful bid, suggested that investors thought another bid was possible or saw new value in the stock, an idea Virtek has encouraged.
As part of its anti-takeover strategy, Virtek announced Aug. 4 that it had agreed to sell its laser imaging and templating division to a Missouri company for $26.5 million.
It said it would use most of that money to buy back as many as 80 per cent of its own shares if it could get them at a price between 85 cents and $1. The sale was expected to close Sept. 12, it said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment