Air Products & Chemicals Walks Away From Bid for Yingde Gases
March 24 2017 - 8:06AM
Dow Jones News
By Joshua Jamerson
Industrial gas maker Air Products & Chemicals Inc. backed
away from its bid to buy China's Yingde Gases Group Co.
In a brief securities filing Friday morning, the Allentown,
Penn.-based company said that "it has determined it is not in the
best interests of Air Products' shareholders to continue to pursue
an acquisition" at this time. A representative from Yingde could
not immediately be reached for comment.
Yingde's stock fell 4.4% to HK$6.26 in Hong Kong, while Air
Products shares were inactive in premarket trading ahead of the
opening in New York.
Air Products, in a nonbinding bid, had offered up to $1.5
billion for Yingde, a price that would have made a deal the largest
takeover of a Chinese firm by an American buyer. After a year when
Chinese companies bought record numbers of American firms, Air
Products & Chemicals' offer was a rare shot for a U.S. company
to get a big takeover in China.
The Wall Street Journal early last week reported that Air
Products' might have to give up on making a deal. Hong Kong-based
private-equity company PAG, led by seasoned deal maker Weijian
Shan, swooped in with a rival bid, and Yingde's three biggest
shareholders, owning around 42% of the company, agreed to accept
the offer, unless there is a better bid. PAG offered six Hong Kong
dollars a share for Yingde and its stock has been trading above
that mark since the start of the month.
Write to Joshua Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 24, 2017 07:51 ET (11:51 GMT)
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