Callidus Capital Corp., the struggling lender controlled by Catalyst Capital Group Inc., said on Thursday its second-largest investor has agreed to buy out the minority shareholding to take the company private.
Under the deal, Braslyn Ltd. will offer 75 cents for each share not owned by Catalyst. Callidus reported the latest in a string of quarterly losses on Wednesday, and its shares closed at 41 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Late last year, Bahamas-based Braslyn, owned by Tavistock Group founder Joe Lewis, proposed to buy out the minority for $2 a share, but did not make a formal bid.
In 2017, Callidus’s Toronto-based chairman Newton Glassman said there had been strong interest in a privatization deal among would-be suitors, and that the company could be worth $18-to-$22 a share based on a valuation from National Bank Financial.
Callidus said its board’s special committee is recommending that investors tender to the cash offer.
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Jeffrey Jones