Farley Inc. decided Wednesday to stick with-and not increase-its $1.5 billion offer for West Point-Pepperell Inc. even as the deadline for bids on that company presumably passed.
Farley`s gamble, to extend its $52-a-share tender offer until midnight Friday, capped a confusing day for Pepperell investors. They scrambled to determine whether other offers for Pepperell were submitted by the mid-day deadline set by that Georgia textile and apparel firm, or whether that deadline would be extended.
Pepperell had said it might stretch the deadline, ”depending on events at the time.” A Pepperell spokeswoman declined Wednesday to provide any details, including whether any offers were submitted.
On the New York Stock Exchange, Pepperell stock, trading ex-dividend, closed at $58 a share, up 12 cents. The stock had jumped more than $3 a share over the preceding two sessions amid speculation that an offer of more than $60 a share would emerge.
Among those rumored as possible bidders were Dominion Textile Ltd. of Montreal and a group said to include Pepperell executives and Milliken & Co., a textile firm based in Spartanburg, S.C.
Dominion Textile declined to comment on Pepperell. Efforts to reach Milliken officials for comment were unsuccessful.
There had been some anticipation that Farley would raise its offer. Efforts to reach Farley officials for comment were unsuccessful.
Chicago-based Farley, a manufacturer of underwear and boots, has been pursuing Pepperell since October but has been rebuffed repeatedly by the Pepperell board.
Farley`s offer was to have expired at midnight Wednesday. In disclosing the latest extension, Farley said that, as of Wednesday, about 4.4 million, or about 15 percent, of Pepperell`s shares had been tendered.
That was down from the 11.9 million shares that had been tendered to Farley as of Feb. 1, indicating stockholders have been withdrawing their shares in anticipation of a higher bid.
