Shareholder Capital asks Vanda Pharma's board to reconsider Future Pak's offer
(Reuters) -Investment firm Shareholder Capital sent a letter to drugmaker Vanda Pharmaceuticals' board on Thursday asking it to reconsider Future Pak's takeover offer.
Last week, Vanda rejected contract manufacturer Future Pak's offer of $7.25 to $7.75 per share in cash, which represents a 59%-70% premium to Wednesday's closing price, and adopted a shareholder rights plan to avert a hostile takeover attempt.
Shareholder Capital, which owns 200,000 outstanding shares of Vanda, asked in its letter, "on what basis did the Board reject Future Pak's offer, which values Vanda shares at nearly 2x their unaffected price."
Shareholder Capital said Vanda's rejection of the offer reveals governance failures in the company.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager Butler Hall Capital has also urged Vanda to form an independent special committee to engage with Future Pak over its takeover offer and run a full sales process.
Vanda said it "welcomes the views of all shareholders and will consider any credible approaches to driving value", while reiterating that Future Pak's proposal was not in the best interest of its shareholders because it significantly undervalued the company.
The drugmaker said its board considered factors including its "strong cash position and... growth prospects" as part of its comprehensive review of the proposal.
(Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
