Shareholders approved a management-led offer to take Shenzhen-based Mindray Medical International ($MR) private and delist from the New York Stock Exchange at a reduced price per share from an initial proposal that was cut as the yuan weakened last year.
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| Mindray Chairman Li Xiting |
The company said in a press release that nearly 83% of shareholders voted in in favor of the proposal at $27 a share, a 10% drop from the original offer of $30 made in June as the yuan/dollar parity rate set by the People's Bank of China dipped starting in the summer of 2015.
The move follows management-led buyouts of other companies based in China such as Shanghai-based CRO WuXi PharmaTech last year that many analysts say marks a potential strategy to relist in Hong Kong or Mainland China in the future. In the case of WuXi, reports suggest it already plans to list its biologics unit in Hong Kong in a $1.5 billion deal.
Another possible deal is for Nasdaq-listed and Beijing-based iKang Healthcare ($KANG) to go private in an offer led by Meinian Onehealth Healthcare and a group of investors. The company is expected to update on the transaction in its March 14 earnings release.
In the case of Mindray, the transaction is expected to conclude in March of this year, the company said in the release, for a firm that operates globally in patient monitoring and life support, in-vitro diagnostics, and medical imaging systems.
- here's the release