Valuation firm Willamette Management Associates has put out a pair of articles discussing the calculation and treatment of synergies in appraisal actions. At least in Delaware, the value of an appraisal petitioner’s shares is to be fixed as the fair value of the company less synergies. Synergies can thus become a significant battleground in an appraisal action – and can result in rulings below merger price. For its part, Willamette reviews a number…

Recently, Vice Chancellor Slights refused to grant Carl Icahn and affiliates’ novel request for a company’s books and records in order to mount a proxy contest against Occidental for agreeing to an allegedly bad deal with Anadarko. The Vice Chancellor ruled that furthering a proxy contest was not a “proper purpose” to support the activist investors’ demand to inspect the corporation’s books and records under section 220 of the DGCL. Icahn’s potential proxy fight comes after…

Does the existence of the appraisal remedy, and its use, have an effect on arbitrage spreads? If the appraisal remedy results in lower arbitrage spreads, then one can conclude that shareholders writ large are benefiting from the appraisal remedy – the argument advanced by Professors Brian Broughman, Audra Boone, and Antonio Macias in their piece “Merger Negotiations in the Shadow of Judicial Appraisal,” published in The Journal of Law and Economics 62, no. 2 (May…

In this paper, published in 2015 in Investment Management and Financial Innovations, the authors examined multiple valuation methods for a specific data set: in this case, Slovakian mining companies. Comparing multiple valuation methods, including a discounted cash flow, economic value, and iterative approach, the authors note that the DCF yielded the lowest valuation, whereas the other methods yielded higher amounts (though the iterative method did so with much higher volatility, represented by high standard…

When considering how to structure a deal – consider appraisal. That’s one of the takeaways from a detailed M&A presentation by lawyers at Morgan Lewis. As we’ve covered before, the existence of appraisal rights, how they may be exercised, and what percentage of shareholders may exercise appraisal rights are considerations for deal lawyers and, of course, the buyer itself. Whether that concern takes the form of simply considering appraisal in the overall process,…

The Texas Court of Appeals recently held that shareholders exercising their appraisal rights under Section 10.354(a) of the Texas Business Organizations Code are not entitled to a jury trial, because appraisal is specially created and controlled by statute. Pursuant to section 10.361(e) of the Code, the court determines which owners have perfected their appraisal rights and appoints an appraiser to determine the fair value of their ownership interest. If an objection to the report filed…

In a 3-2 vote, the SEC recently agreed to propose stricter voting requirements on shareholder proposals. The proposed rule would raise the threshold of shareholder support required to resubmit proposals previously voted down by shareholders. While SEC Chairman Jay Clayton proclaimed that the changes will help weed out unconstructive shareholder proposals, SEC Commissioner Robert J. Jackson Jr. expressed his concern that the proposals would “shield CEOs from accountability to investors.” Making shareholder proposals is one of…