Jana built new stake in Modine before stock surged on takeover talk
Jana built new stake in Modine before stock surged on takeover talk By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Jana Partners built a new position in Modine Manufacturing MOD.N during the third quarter, the activist investor said on Friday as the cooling system company's stock surged more than 30% on reports it may be acquired by Samsung Electronics 005930.KS.
Modine, valued at roughly $7 billion and a major supplier of thermal management systems for the data center industry, is one of two new positions that Jana Partners built during the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing.
At the end of September, Jana owned 287,620 shares in the Racine, Wisconsin headquartered company.
Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Samsung and Modine are discussing a potential deal that could come together as soon as the coming weeks. Speculation about a takeover sent Modine's stock price up 30.75% to trade at $138.80 on Friday.
The filing also showed that Jana owned 1.8 million shares in Casella Waste Systems CWST.O at the end of the third quarter. Reuters reported last month that Jana had built the position in Casella and was urging the regional waste services company to improve its profit margins and returns on invested capital.
During the quarter, Jana exited its position in technology company Everpure P.N, which it began building in the first quarter of 2026. Formerly known as Pure Storage, Everpure had seen a surge in demand due to the artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out and increase in demand for data and its stock price has jumped 56% since January.
A Jana representative did not elaborate on the new positions or explain why the firm exited the Everpure investment.
Asset managers are required to make the quarterly filings to detail how much they held in U.S. companies at the end of a three month period.
Jana ranks among the industry's most successful activist investors and its stock picks are closely followed on Wall Street, bankers said. The firm successfully pushed telecom company Frontier Communications to sell itself before it was bought by Verizon Communications.
It is currently urging fintech payments company Fiserv FISV.O to sell off nonessential businesses and refresh its board.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )
((svea.herbst@thomsonreuters.com; +617 233 2138; Reuters Messaging: svea.herbst.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))