Herbalife receives proposal from shareholders to acquire company for $38 per share

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Feb. 2 - Herbalife Ltd.'s board of directors received a proposal from Whitney V LP and its affiliates to acquire all of the company's outstanding common stock for $38.00 per share in cash, a 16.3% premium to the trailing 15-day average closing price of the company's stock.

Whitney and related parties own about 27% of the company's outstanding common stock, according to a company news release.

In response, Herbalife's board established a special committee of independent directors to review the proposal.

"Our proposal also provides shareholders with an attractive alternative to the uncertainty and volatility that they face in continuing to own the company's shares," the shareholders said in a schedule 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Since we would be selling a meaningful portion of our holdings in the acquisition on the same terms as other shareholders, we are voting with our action."

The shareholders expect to fund the transaction with a combination of equity, with up to 50% provided by the buyer, and $2 billion in debt financing from selected major financial institutions.

The investors said they also want to work with management "to fine tune our financing structure and to evaluate whether to add other value-added investors to our proposal."

Herbalife is a global network marketing company based in Los Angeles that sells weight-management, nutritional supplements and personal care products.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.