Och pushes Sculptor to release information about Bidder J's bid for company (updated)

Holmen AB

31/08/2023 23:54

(adds former CEO Shafir's comments in paragraphs 7-9)
    By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
       NEW YORK, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Dan Och and four other
former executives of Sculptor Capital Management  SCU.N  on
Thursday pressed the hedge fund to release information about a
more lucrative bid for the company which it rejected in favor of
sticking by a deal with Rithm Capital  RITM.N .
    Investors Boaz Weinstein, Bill Ackman, Marc Lasry and Jeff
Yass - members of a group called Bidder J - offered to pay
$12.76 per share for Sculptor, the hedge fund said on Wednesday.
But Sculptor chose to stay with Rithm's $11.15 per share bid,
saying the Bidder J offer has "significantly less certainty of
closing."
    But Och and the others want details.
    "Many shareholders and investors are eager to hear more
about such a bid, and we urge the Board to do its fiduciary duty
and waive the NDAs (nondisclosure agreements) to maximize the
bidding process and achieve the highest value for shareholders,"
Och said in a statement.
    The group's call to release the other bidders from their
nondisclosure agreements is the latest move in an increasingly
tense battle between some of the hedge fund industry's most
storied managers over Sculptor, the firm Och founded and ran for
years. Rithm agreed to buy Sculptor in July.
    Och called Weinstein, Ackman, Lasry and Yass "some of the
most acclaimed investors of the last 25 years" and said "it
seems evident that such a group could augment Sculptor's
investment team while paying much more cash to the
shareholders."
    Sculptor's former CEO Rob Shafir, who owns 6.2% of the
company, said he thought it was the right time for the company
to be sold but he will not support the proposed sale to Rithm.
        He wrote in an open letter to Sculptor's board that it
was their fiduciary duty to maximize shareholder value and that
$12.76 with committed financing was clearly superior to $11.15. 
  
        Shafir also wrote that it was not credible to say Bidder
J would not be acceptable to limited partners or maintain the
position that Bidder J does not have the funds and resources to
complete this transaction. 
  
    A representative of Sculptor was not immediately available
for comment. 

 (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss in New York
Editing by Matthew Lewis and David Gregorio)
 ((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters
Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))