AIR_PRODUCTS_CAR
An Air Products & Chemicals Inc. hydrogen car is on display in 2010 at Nazareth Area Middle School. Control of the company is in play as a hedge fund has taken a 9.8 percent stake in the Upper Macungie Township specialty gasses company.
(Express-Times File Photo)
The future direction of
is up in the air after Pershing Square Capital Management LP announced this morning it bought a 9.8 percent stake in the company,
.
The hedge fund led by billionaire investor
spent $2.05 billion for a share in the
manufacturer of specialty gases, the magazine said, citing an email from Ackman. The share is now worth $2.2 billion, the magazine said. It is his largest investment in terms of cost according to
, which was first to announce the deal.
"It's a great business that is undervalued," Ackman told CNBC. "We have some ideas on how to add value."
Company spokesman George Noon said while Air Products values shareholder input, "We don't think the direction of the company is up in the air." He said the company has had no dialogue with Ackman or the hedge fund, but it welcomes it.
"It's business as usual for us," Noon said, adding that nothing has changed in the operation of the company, despite getting a new nearly 10 percent stockholder.
The stock was up 3.45 percent this morning at 109.7 on the
. That is a new 52-week high and well above its 52-week low of 76.78. The stock has been rising since Ackman announced earlier this month he was raising money to buy stock in a U.S. company, according to reports.
Air Products in an earlier statement expanded on Noon's comment, saying it "welcomes new investors and looks forward to engaging with Pershing Square to understand its views," it said in
. "In keeping with its long-standing practice, Air Products will thoroughly review constructive input from shareholders as part of its commitment to increasing shareholder value."
The company said it has "taken significant, proactive steps in recent years to deliver earnings and operating cash flow growth in a very challenging economic environment." The 2013 return on shareholder investment is 21.6 percent through July 24, the company said, "more than double that of its industrial gas peer group."
The local company was valued at $22.1 billion as of Tuesday, the magazine said. It employs more than 20,000 people worldwide. It employs about 3,500 people in the Lehigh Valley, making it the region's third-largest employer behind Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke's University Health Network, according to the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. and the company.
On July 8, Ackman, 47, said he was raising as much as $1 billion to take a stake in an unnamed American company.
announced a shareholders rights plan -- often called a "poison pill" -- in an effort to not let one shareholder gain too much control. It said there was "unusual and substantial activity" in the company's stock.
The plan "will help promote the fair and equal treatment of all stockholders of the company in the event of an accumulation of a substantial block of the company’s shares and ensure that the board of directors remains in the best position to discharge its fiduciary duties to the company and its stockholders," according to a posting on its website.
That effort caused Ackman to not take a larger stake of the company, CNBC said.
In the past, Ackman has encouraged shakeups in companies in which his fund invested, the magazine reported. Recent investments in J.C. Penney Co. and Herbalife Ltd. were not moneymakers, the magazine said.
Archives editor KJ Frantz contributed to this report.