Ford Shareholders Targeted with Below-Market Stock Offer
Ford Motor Company is warning its shareholder about a low-ball offer to purchase their shares from a Canadian based investment firm called TRC Capital. According to an email to shareholders, the firm is offering shareholder $11.70 a share for their Ford stakes, even though the automaker’s shares have surged 20 percent in the last six months, closing at $12.46 per share on Thursday.
According to a spokesman for the US Securities and Exchange Commission, these types of low-ball offers are not entirely uncommon, and are designed to acquire shares at a discount by preying on investors who do not watch the value of their stocks on a daily basis. The offers are generally formed into messages that make them sound like they are above market value, and TRC has a history of trying to dupe investors in this manner.
In just the first two months of 2012, TRC has made similar offers, known as “mini-tender” offers, to shareholders of Marathon Petroleum, Qualcomm, and Dutch electronic firm Royal Philips Electronics, each of which caught wind of the move and alerted shareholders in the same manner as Ford. All three of those companies are currently trading well above the price TRC offered for their shares.
