Air Products Raises Bid for Airgas
NEW YORK (
) -
Air Products and Chemicals
(APD) - Get Report
raised its bid for
Airgas
(ARG)
on Thursday afternoon, to $70 per share.
Shares of Airgas plummeted after the announcement, as the company has maintained that its shares are worth much more.
The move was not a surprise to the market, but the amount of Air Products' raised offer was below expectations. Early on Thursday morning, analysts at MKM Partners said that they expected a raised bid from Air Products.
The New York Times
recently compared the long-running hostile bid by Air Products for Airgas as an "interminable war."
MKM Partners instructed investors to buy bullish Airgas options, arguing that Air Products would probably raise its $65.50-per-share bid to buy the producer of industrial gases to $71 or $72.
The actual new offer from Air Products was only $70 per share, though.
"It is time to bring this matter to a conclusion, and we are today making our best and final offer for Airgas," John E. McGlade, Air Products' chairman and chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday afternoon.
Air Products is extending the deadline for its tender offer for Airgas shares to Jan. 14, from a previous deadline of Dec. 17.
The hostile bid has been tied up in the Delaware courts, where Airgas has contended that it is worth $78 per share or more.
Airgas shares fell by 7% after the new offer was announced.
Air Products shares were up close to 3% after their "best and final offer."
-- Written by Eric Rosenbaum from New York.
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