WuXi PharmaTech Shareholders OK $3.3B Go-Private Deal By Matthew Perlman Law360, New York (November 25, 2015, 6:26 PM ET) -- China-based research and development service provider WuXi PharmaTech on Wednesday said that its shareholders have approved a $3.3 billion deal with a consortium of private equity investors and the company's founders that will take the company private. WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. shareholders representing about 75 percent of the company's outstanding ordinary shares voted at its extraordinary general meeting and 97.5 percent of them voted in favor of the deal, according to a statement from the company announcing the vote's results. WuXi expects to complete the transaction next month. Under the terms, which were first agreed to in August, WuXi shareholders will receive $5.75 per ordinary share of the company, or $46 per American depositary share, in cash. That represents a 16.5 percent premium over the stock's closing price on April 29, a day before the offer was first announced. American depositary shares were trading at $45.60 on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday morning. The consortium looking to buy out WuXi includes existing investor Hillhouse Capital and the company's founders and executives officers, who together with Hillhouse currently hold 4.5 percent of the outstanding shares. New investors participating in the consortium include Ally Bridge Group Capital Partners, Boyo Capital, Temasek Life Sciences Private Ltd. and Ping An Insurance. The group plans to finance the transaction using cash and $1.1 billion in debt financing, according to a statement announcing the deal. WuXi provides research and development services and technology for the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device industries, with operations in the U.S. and China. The company reported $492 million in revenue last year with a net income of $112.2 million, according to its annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. WuXi is far from the first Chinese company to be targeted by an offer that would delist it from the U.S. markets this year. Internet security company Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. received a $9 billion offer from a group of investors including Qihoo CEO and chairman Hongyi Zhou in June. The investors are offering to pay $51.33 in cash per class A or B ordinary share or $77 in cash per American depositary share. The company retained Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP as legal counsel to consider the deal. Chinese social media platform YY Inc. received a $3.69 billion go-private offer from its board chairman and CEO in July. The deal, which the company continues to contemplate, would pay $68.50 cash per American depositary share. But volatility on Chinese stock markets in recent months may have helped quell the push for go-private offers for companies considering re-listing publicly at home. By late July of this year, 23 Chinese companies had announced plans to walk away from U.S. exchanges, including WuXi. Since then, just three have followed suit, according to data tracked by Dealogic. The year still stands in stark contrast to 2014, which saw just one company mark its final close on a U.S. exchange. Between 2009 and 2013, a total of 39 delistings were carried out by Chinese companies, according to Dealogic.
Do Hedge Funds Love WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (WX)? Published on November 24, 2015 at 6:50 pm by ADNAN MANAZIR in Hedge Funds, News Out of thousands of stocks that are currently traded on the market, it is difficult to determine those that can really generate strong returns. Hedge funds and institutional investors spend millions of dollars on analysts with MBAs and PhDs, who are industry experts and well connected to other industry and media insiders on top of that. Individual investors can piggyback the hedge funds employing these talents and can benefit from their vast resources and knowledge in that way. We analyze quarterly 13F filings of over 700 hedge funds and, by looking at the smart money sentiment that surrounds a stock, we can determine whether it has potential to beat the market over the long-term. Therefore, let's take a closer look at what smart money thinks about WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX). WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX) was in 22 hedge funds' portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2015. WX has experienced an increase in hedge fund interest in recent months. There were 21 hedge funds in our database with WX holdings at the end of the previous quarter. The level and the change in hedge fund popularity aren't the only variables you need to analyze to decipher hedge funds' perspectives. A stock may witness a boost in popularity but it may still be less popular than similarly priced stocks. That's why at the end of this article we will examine companies such as MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), and Industrias Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:IBA) to gather more data points. Keeping this in mind, let's take a peek at the fresh action encompassing WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX).
What have hedge funds been doing with WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX)? At the end of the third quarter, a total of 22 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey were long this stock, a change of 5% from the previous quarter. With hedge funds' positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a select group of key hedge fund managers who were upping their holdings considerably (or already accumulated large positions). When looking at the institutional investors followed by Insider Monkey, Frank Brosens's Taconic Capital has the biggest position in WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX), worth close to $92.9 million, comprising 3.4% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is OZ Management, led by Daniel S. Och, holding a $74 million position; 0.3% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the stock. Remaining peers with similar optimism contain Robert Emil Zoellner's Alpine Associates, Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital and Lei Zhang's Hillhouse Capital Management. As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers were leading the bulls' herd. Alpine Associates, managed by Robert Emil Zoellner, initiated the most valuable position in WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX). Alpine Associates had $56.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Thomas Steyer's Farallon Capital also initiated a $55.9 million position during the quarter. The following funds were also among the new WX investors: Noam Gottesman's GLG Partners, Michael Novogratz's Fortress Investment Group, and Millennium Management Subsidiary's Green Arrow Capital Management. Let's check out hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX). These stocks are MPLX LP (NYSE:MPLX), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO), Industrias Bachoco, S.A.B. de C.V. (ADR) (NYSE:IBA), and TC Pipelines, LP (NYSE:TCP). This group of stocks' market caps are similar to WX's market cap. As you can see these stocks had an average of 15.5 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $150 million. That figure was $441 million in WX's case. American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand TC Pipelines, LP (NYSE:TCP) is the least popular one with only 4 bullish hedge fund positions. WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. (ADR) (NYSE:WX) is not the most popular stock in this group but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, which when taken in combination with the number of funds long the stock increasing by 1, makes WX worthy of a closer look.
WuXi PharmaTech Announces Shareholders' Approval of Merger Agreement SHANGHAI, Nov. 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- WuXi PharmaTech (Cayman) Inc. ("WuXi" or the "Company") (NYSE: WX), a leading open-access R&D capability and technology platform company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries with operations in China and the United States, today announced that at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders held today, the Company's shareholders voted in favor of the proposal to authorize and approve the previously announced agreement and plan of merger (the "Merger Agreement") dated as of August 14, 2015 and amended on October 20, 2015 and November 20, 2015, with New WuXi Life Science Limited ("Parent") and WuXi Merger Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent ("Merger Sub"), pursuant to which Merger Sub will be merged with and into the Company with the Company surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of Parent (the "Merger"), and to authorize and approve any and all transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, including the Merger. A total of 426,965,520 ordinary shares (including ordinary shares represented by the Company's American depositary shares, or "ADSs", each of which represents eight ordinary shares) were voted in person or by proxy at today's extraordinary general meeting, representing approximately 75.17% of the Company's total outstanding ordinary shares entitled to vote at the extraordinary general meeting. Of those ordinary shares, approximately 97.49% were voted in favor of the proposal to authorize and approve the Merger Agreement and any and all transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, including the Merger. The proposal to adopt the Merger Agreement was also approved by 97.33% of ordinary shares present and voting in person or by proxy at the extraordinary general meeting and held by holders that are unaffiliated with the buyer group, satisfying the "majority of the minority" voting requirement set forth in the Merger Agreement. The parties currently expect to complete the Merger next month, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the conditions set forth in the Merger Agreement. If and when completed, the Merger would result in the Company becoming a privately held company, and its ADSs would no longer be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, the ADSs and the Company's ordinary shares represented by the ADSs will cease to be registered under Section 12 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
About WuXi PharmaTech WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) is a leading open-access R&D capability and technology platform company serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, with operations in China and the United States. As a research-driven and customer-focused company, WuXi PharmaTech provides pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies with a broad and integrated portfolio of laboratory and manufacturing services throughout the drug and medical device R&D process. WuXi PharmaTech's services are designed to help its global partners in shortening the cycle and lowering the cost of drug and medical device R&D. WuXi is also building a platform to provide clinical diagnostic services directly to physicians and their patients globally. The operating subsidiaries of WuXi PharmaTech are known as WuXi AppTec.
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