Shareholder opposes Husky sale

A shareholder that holds a five per cent stake in Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd. is not satisfied with Toronto-based Onex Corp.‘s bid to purchase the company, according to media reports.

As reported by Canadian Plastics, Onex Corp. recently offered to purchase Husky for $960 million, or $8.18 per share. Robert Beauregard, the senior vice president of small-capitalization at Natcan Investment Management Inc., says the offer is too low. Beauregard plans to lobby other shareholders to resist the buyout or ask for a bigger offer.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Beauregard said he wanted Husky to remain a public company. Instead of selling the company, he argued that Husky should sell founder Robert Schad’s 44 per cent stake in a second offering.

“There are very few good multinationals [left] in Canada,” he reportedly said. “They are all being bought one by one.”

Beauregard believes that Onex should offer a minimum of $10 a share for Husky. Natcan has been a shareholder for seven years, and Beauregard believes the company has shown “real progress” in the last year.

“Patient shareholders were really starting to see the benefit of the global pick-up in capital spending, and the emergence of Asia,” he told the paper. “Why should we leave all the upside to Onex?”