Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. will get to show some shareholders,including one skeptic,details of its proposed acquisition of Bausch & Lomb Inc.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Bausch & Lomb agreed to let Advanced Medical shareholders look at the $4.23 billion combination after saying last week it was leaning against the deal because of Advanced Medical investor opposition.
Advanced Medical is looking to wrest Bausch from a $3.67 billion go-private offer from Warburg Pincus LLC, a private equity firm.
San Francisco-based activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital LP, which holds 15% of Advanced Medical, has opposed the Bausch deal.
That prompted Bausch to say it believed there was “substantial uncertainty” that Advanced Medical’s cash-and-stock offer would secure investors’ approval and that its board continued to recommend the Warburg all-cash offer.
Bausch is asking Advanced Medical to provide “concrete, credible evidence” of its ability to secure approval from its shareholders no later than Friday.
Advanced Medical hadn’t been able to poll shareholders on the deal because of an agreement that prevented it from disclosing proprietary information about the offer or its discussions from Bausch.
Bausch’s latest move grants a limited waiver.
Published reports said Advanced Medical wanted to discuss its plan for potential divestitures as well as its potential positive earnings boost. It previously projected the combined company would save $180 million a year through less overhead and operating efficiencies.
