Appraisal is the New Black

ATTORNEY: H. ADAM PRUSSIN
POMERANTZ MONITOR, MARCH/APRIL 2014 

For decades, appraisal has been viewed as an antiquated, seldom-used procedure that “dissenting” shareholders can use if they believe that their company is being sold for an inadequate price. Instead of accepting the merger price, dissenters can ask a court to determine the “fair value” of their shares. But they rarely do. 

Until now. As highlighted in a recent New York Times Dealbook article, the “new, new thing on Wall Street is appraisal rights,” particularly in the hands of hedge fund investors who can easily afford the costs. 

The Dell management buyout may have been the start of this trend. There were months of wrangling between the buyout group and a “special committee” of disinterested directors, who were unable to scare up any legitimate competing offers from any third parties, despite intensive efforts to shop the company and lots of noise from Carl Icahn. Then, the deal finally went through, at a total cost of $24.9 billion. About 2.7 percent of shareholders exercised appraisal rights, including institutional investor T. Rowe Price. A much bigger percentage of dissenters appeared in the wake of the Dole Food management buyout of last fall. According to Dealbook, most investors were underwhelmed by the merger price, and in the end, only 50.9 percent of the shares voted to approve the merger. Four hedge funds reportedly bought about 14 million shares when the buyout proposal was first announced, and they have now exercised their appraisal rights. In all, about 25 percent of Dole’s public shareholders have sought appraisal -- an astonishing number. These four dissenting hedge funds have engaged in this same tactic several times in the past, and a nascent cottage industry in appraisal rights is developing. As discussed in the following article, this has led to significant changes in Delaware law and practice, to help acquirers back away from a merger agreement if too many shareholders choose to dissent. Acquirers are going to think twice if they can’t predict how much they are actually going to have to pay to buy a company. 

The threat of appraisal actions is probably a good thing, especially in the context of management buyouts, where the odds are heavily stacked against the public shareholders. It is useful for these insiders to know that, if they try to cut too good a deal for themselves, savvy financial institutions can take them to the cleaners in appraisal proceedings.