If his latest plan worked, billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian will announce Wednesday that he has spent $700 million to increase his stake in Chrysler Corp. to 13.1 percent of the company.
Kerkorian’s offer to buy 14 million shares at $50 each ran through midnight Tuesday. The Kerkorian camp was comfortable that at least that many shares had been tendered, according to a source close to Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp.
Kerkorian’s next move is anybody’s guess. Documents he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission suggest he might try to buy additional stock or work with other shareholders to take control of the Chrysler board.
He could buy about 7 million additional shares and increase his stake to 15 percent before Chrysler’s “poison pill” anti-takeover defenses would be triggered.
Some managers of Chrysler portfolios were not tempted by his offer. “To the best of my knowledge, no one (here) is tendering shares,” said Ted Shasta of Loomis Sayles & Co. in Boston, which manages about 3 million shares of Chrysler.
Kerkorian announced the offer June 26, less than a month after he dropped an audacious proposal to take over the company, with help from former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca.
