Two investors in Bausch & Lomb Inc. came out Thursday against the company’s proposed acquisition by Warburg Pincus LLC, giving hope to Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc.’s embattled bid for the eye care products company.
Healthcor Management LP said it would oppose Warburg’s $3.67 billion all-cash deal to take Bausch private and urged the company to accept Advanced Medical’s $4.23 billion cash and stock takeover bid.
New York-based Healthcor, which manages private and public equity funds worth more than $2 billion, owned 1.45 million shares, or about 2.7%, of Bausch as of March 31.
“While we recognize that the AMO offer will be more time-consuming and potentially more difficult to consummate, we believe it is the right one to accept,” Healthcor said in a release.
Earlier, Sandell Asset Management Corp., a hedge fund that owns about 700,000 shares, or 1.3% of Bausch, said it was going to vote against the Warburg bid.
In a letter to Bausch, Sandell, which is also based in New York, said it believed Advanced Medical’s bid was superior and that Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch was unnecessarily dismissing it in favor of a transaction that undervalued the company.
