Hedge Funds |
Mergers & Acquisitions
| June 18, 2013, 1:29 pm
Icahn Buys Half of
Southeastern’s Stake in Dell and Calls for a Stock Buyback
By
MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
Chad Batka for The New York Times
Carl C.
Icahn, the billionaire activist investor. |
Carl C. Icahn isn’t backing
away from his fight over
Dell Inc.‘s proposed $24.4
billion management buyout just yet.
The billionaire investor wrote in an open letter to shareholders on Tuesday
that he had bought half of the stake held by his fellow dissident investor,
Southeastern Asset Management. That raised his own holdings to about 152
million shares, according to data from Bloomberg, putting the size of his
position behind only that of the company’s founder, Michael
S. Dell.
Both Mr. Icahn and Southeastern remain allied in their bid to defeat the
takeover offer by Mr. Dell and the investment firm Silver Lake, however. Mr.
Icahn went further on Tuesday, demanding that Dell instead begin a tender
offer for 1.1 billion shares at $14 apiece.
That is higher than the $13.65-a-share that Mr. Dell and Silver Lake are
offering.
To press forward with the tender offer, Mr. Icahn urged shareholders to vote
down the management buyout proposal and support a slate of directors that he
and Southeastern have put forward. The billionaire expects that new board to
roll out the share buyback plan.
Tuesday’s announcement highlights Mr. Icahn’s unwillingness to walk away
from a fight that has seemed to become only more difficult.
In his letter, the hedge fund magnate criticized Dell’s defenses against
his offer, arguing that the company is besmirching the quality of its own
products to downplay its business prospects.
“In what other context would the person tasked with selling a product
actually spend their efforts negatively positioning the very product they
are trying to sell?” he wrote in the letter.
A spokesman for Dell said in a statement, ““As the board’s special committee
continues to oversee its process, we remain focused on our customers and on
providing innovative products and solutions to help them succeed and better
compete.”
Elements of Tuesday’s announcement were aimed at rebutting speculation that
Mr. Icahn and Southeastern were preparing to walk away. In a separate
statement, Southeastern said that while it was selling half of its holdings
to Mr. Icahn, it still intends to vote against both Mr. Dell’s takeover bid
and for the alternate director candidates.
“Icahn has Southeastern’s full support as it leads the proxy fight in the
interest of all shareholders against the undervalued management buyout
proposal,” the asset management firm said. “Southeastern will continue to
participate in the proxy contest with Icahn to defeat the Michael Dell /
Silver Lake management buyout proposal.”
Seeking to push back against
reports that he was having
trouble corralling the financing necessary to support the stock buyback
plan, Mr. Icahn contended that he has commitments from “a major investment
bank” to provide $1.6 billion. The investor himself is will to furnish an
additional $2 billion.
He also disputed
calculations by a special committee of
Dell’s board that such a stock repurchase plan would saddle the
company with a big hole in its balance sheet.
Mr. Icahn wrote: “It appears to us that the only clear shortfalls at Dell
are from poor execution which interestingly occurred during the first half
of the year (including starting a PC price war a mere two months before a
going-private transaction, granting retention cash bonuses to employees and
prepaying debt) and negotiating a high breakup fee in the Michael
Dell/Silver Lake deal.”
Shareholders seemed unenthusiastic about Mr. Icahn’s chances for victory,
however. Shares in Dell were up less than half a percentage point by
midafternoon on Tuesday, trading at $13.46 each.
Here is a copy of Mr. Icahn’s letter:
Dear Fellow Dell Shareholders:
We take this opportunity to respond to rumors regarding the availability
of financing for our proposal for a recapitalization at Dell and to
address recent statements by Dell that demean the prospects of Dell. We
are amazed by these statements by the Dell Board. In what other context
would the person tasked with selling a product actually spend their
efforts negatively positioning the very product they are trying to sell?
Is that how the supposed “go-shop” was conducted? Can you imagine a real
estate broker running advertisements warning of termite danger in a
house each time a prospective buyer seems interested? Dell’s statements,
and in particular the June 5 presentation by Dell, only convinces us
further that the $13.65 price in the pending Michael Dell/Silver Lake
deal significantly undervalues the Company. We have also come to the
conclusion that a Board that has circulated this information while we
were attempting to proceed with our proposed recapitalization (which
would allow Dell stockholders the opportunity to retain their Dell
shares and to elect to receive a distribution of either $12.00 per share
in cash, or $12.00 in additional shares of Dell common stock valued at
$1.65 per share), will never accept our proposal as a Superior Proposal
as defined in Dell’s February 5 Merger Agreement. As a result, and in
order to settle all questions regarding liquidity, we propose that Dell
engage in the $14 per share tender offer described below. In order to
implement our tender offer proposal we will: (1) seek to defeat the
Michael Dell/Silver Lake transaction at the July 18 Special Meeting and
we ask you to vote against that transaction as we believe the $13.65 per
share purchase price substantially undervalues Dell; and (2) once the
Michael Dell/Silver lake transaction is defeated, seek to elect our
slate of directors at the 2013 Dell annual meeting of shareholders to
implement our proposed $14 per share tender offer.
We propose that Dell commence a tender offer for approximately 1.1
billion Dell shares at $14 per share (for a maximum of $16 billion
available in the tender offer). Icahn and Southeastern (who together
hold approximately 13% of Dell’s shares) will agree not to tender in the
tender offer. Our proposal allows those who believe, like us, that the
$13.65 price being offered in the Michael Dell/Silver Lake going private
transaction significantly undervalues Dell, to continue to hold Dell
shares. It also provides an opportunity for those who wish to tender at
$14 a share to do so, with the knowledge that they will be able to sell
at least approximately 72% of their position, and possibly more if other
shareholders do not fully subscribe to the tender offer.
Funding for the tender offer would be provided from $5.2 billion of debt
financing, together with $7.5 billion in cash available at Dell (after
taxes and payment of fees) and $2.9 billion available through a sale of
Dell receivables. This would leave approximately $4.9 billion of cash
available for ongoing Dell operations.
We are proceeding to obtain commitments for $5.2 billion of senior debt
financing to be made available to Dell as a bridge loan to guaranty the
tender offer and believe that we are on target to achieve that result. A
major investment bank has indicated its willingness to make available
$1.6 billion and Carl Icahn and his affiliates would make available $2
billion if necessary to facilitate this commitment. To preempt the
repetition of the criticisms the Company made regarding our prior plan,
we believe the Company will have ample liquidity and capital to make the
tender offer and run the business well. The Company’s criticism that we
must plan to prepay debt is wrong. Just as most companies do, we believe
the Company can pay down debt as it comes due from cash from operations.
And since the Company will have $4.9 billion in cash following the
tender offer, we see no need to arrange a revolver at this time.
While we have not varied one inch from our plan to raise $5.2 billion in
senior debt and to utilize cash and receivables at Dell to fund our
recapitalization proposal, Dell has continued to move the goal posts by
implying that more cash is required for our proposal to be implemented.
The special committee also seems to gloss over the fact Dell’s business
generates significant cash flow according to management’s and BCG’s
publicly filed plans which have not been changed. It appears to us that
the only clear shortfalls at Dell are from poor execution which
interestingly occurred during the first half of the year (including
starting a PC price war a mere two months before a going-private
transaction, granting retention cash bonuses to employees and prepaying
debt) and negotiating a high breakup fee in the Michael Dell/Silver Lake
deal. We also find it strange that when Quest was purchased in July 2012
it was making $100 million in operating income and now it is suddenly
losing $85 million.
We are also announcing today that we have purchased approximately 72
million shares of Dell from Southeastern Asset Management, with proxies
to vote at the July 18 Special Meeting. Southeastern continues to be
part of our group in opposing the Michael Dell/Silver Lake deal and will
share the fees and expenses of the proxy fight on a pro rata basis.
Finally, we have reviewed motions filed against Dell by plaintiffs in
their action challenging the Michael Dell/Silver Lake transaction
alleging, among other things, inadequacy of the $13.65 per share
purchase price, conflicts of interest and breach of fiduciary duty. We
have provided the attached letter in support of that action.
We continue to urge Dell shareholders to vote against the proposed
Michael Dell/Silver Lake going private transaction at the July 18
Special Meeting.
Very truly yours,
Carl C. Icahn |
Copyright 2013
The New York Times Company |