Danbury global industrial gas supplier Praxair Inc. is urging its stockholders not to tender shares to an uninvited “mini-tender” offer from a Canadian investor.
TRC Capital Corp. in Toronto is offering $103.25 each for Praxair shares in order to acquire less than 5 percent Praxair’s outstanding shares.
That is the threshold at which bidders can make a play for a company’s shares and bypass federal securities protections for the targets’ shareholders, Praxair said Thursday.
TRC Capital has employed a similar tactic on other U.S. companies in recent years, including Borg-Warner, Adobe and Raytheon.
Praxair was up 1 percent at $104.23 a share in mid-morning trading.
“Praxair is not associated with this offer and does not endorse the offer,” a company statement said.
Praxair guided investors to a Securities and Exchange Commission link www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/minitend.htm describing how mini-tenders are used to gain advantage on stockholders.
“Bidders are hoping that they will catch investors off guard if the investors do not compare the offer price to the current market price,” Praxair said.
The company also reminded shareholders who have tendered shares to TRC that, under the tender terms, they have until 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on May 27 to withdraw their shares.
