Cleveland-based Ancora Holdings Group has put forward a cash range of $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion for H.B. Fuller Co.'s building adhesives segment, raising the upper bound of its earlier proposal by $200 million. Ancora says it has a "highly confident" letter from Fortress Investment Group tied to its ability to provide the required debt financing. After confirming the revised approach following a Bloomberg News report, people familiar said Ancora aims to work anew with H.B. Fuller's independent directors.
H.B. Fuller did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment. Fortress provided no comment. A spokesperson for Ancora was not reachable.
Ancora first went public in May pushing H.B. Fuller to drop its planned purchase of the UK's Advanced Medical Solutions Group Plc, calling the deal "extremely risky," and saying it would hold leadership accountable for what it viewed as value destruction. In August, the activist came back with a cash proposal between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion for the building adhesives unit. At the time, it contended that carving out the unit would enable H.B. Fuller to reduce debt and concentrate more on integrating Advanced Medical. It also said a sale would take H.B. Fuller out of a low-margin, highly fragmented market and could "solidify a potentially indefinite end to public activism."
H.B. Fuller's board rejected the unsolicited offer on the grounds that the building adhesives business was being valued materially below its worth, that it overlooked the unit's growth potential and strategic importance to the broader adhesives portfolio, and that it lacked key information to be actionable. Fuller's long-suffering shareholders."
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Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, H.B. Fuller said last week that net income rose 9% year over year for the quarter that concluded on Aug. 29. The stock has fallen about 17% in 2024 and finished Monday's session at $49.37, putting market value around $2.7 billion. For your wallet, the takeaway is that when activists and boards square up, prices can move fast on new bids, pushback, or financing signals.
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