Investor Icahn slams Amylin for not revealing B-MS bid

Billionaire US investor Carl Icahn has sent a blistering open letter to the board of US biotech company Amylin (Nasdaq: AMLN), castigating it for not revealing that it had received - and rejected - a $22 a share takeover offer from drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), news of which only came to light after a leak to the press (The Pharma Letter March 29).

Pointing out that, to this day, shareholders would not have known about this opportunity had the story not been leaked, Mr Icahn said still more egregious is the fact that, in the face of this reported $22 offer, the board approved both (i) the public offering of 10% of the company at an assumed price of $15.62 per share on March 8, without disclosing the Bristol-Myers offer in the registration statement that Amylin filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (in this regard, he found it notable that not all members of the board signed this registration statement), and (ii) the granting of options to the company's executive officers with an exercise price of $16.02 per share (approximately 27% below the reported $22 bid price from Bristol-Myers) on March 6.

“These actions make absolutely no sense to me in light of a Bristol-Myers bid and have served to substantially dilute shareholders who owned the stock when these actions were taken. I believe any decision not to pursue a sale of the company at this time is a huge mistake,” stressed Mr Icahn, who has a stake of around 8.9% in Amylin, making him the firm’s third largest investor.