NEW YORK – BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc., the third-largest U.S. warehouse-club chain, was sued by an investor claiming its proposed $2.8 billion takeover price is “grossly inadequate”.
Leonard Green & Partners LP is acquiring the company at a “substantial” discount to its true value and BJ’s directors locked up the deal by agreeing to “impermissible” deal-protection devices, lawyers for shareholder Maxine Phillips said in the complaint filed on June 29 in Delaware Chancery Court. Phillips is seeking to represent all BJ’s shareholders in her bid to bar the deal.
Directors “have effectively placed a cap on BJ’s corporate value at a time when the company’s stock price was recovering from the recent economic decline,” lawyers for Phillips said in the complaint.
Under the agreement, Leonard Green and CVC Capital Partners will pay BJ’s investors $51.25 in cash for each share they hold. The takeover gives the firm