Icahn Enterprises makes $10.2B bid for Clorox

[July 15, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Activist investor Carl Icahn is offering to take Clorox private in a deal that values the consumer products maker at about $10.2 billion.

The billionaire investor said in a regulatory filing that his firm has proposed paying $76.50 a share for Clorox, which makes cleaning products as well as Hidden Valley salad dressing and the Burt's Bees personal care product line.

The offer is an 11.8 percent premium over Thursday's closing price for Clorox of $68.43 a share.

Clorox stock jumped $8.44, or 12.3 percent, to $76.87 in premarket trading -- slightly above the offered price.

Icahn said he outlined the proposal in a letter sent Thursday to Clorox Chairman and CEO Donald Knauss.

Icahn is the largest shareholder in Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox. He values the deal at $12.6 billion, and wrote that Icahn Enterprises will contribute $3.8 billion to the deal using cash on hand and $1 billion in Clorox stock.

Jefferies & Co. said it will arrange the remaining $7.8 billion in financing, the letter said.

In the letter, Icahn encouraged Clorox to seek other acquisition offers, and said if Clorox accepts the deal by July 29 and Icahn Enterprises is unable to complete the deal, the firm will pay Clorox $100 million.

Icahn Enterprises bought a 9.4 percent stake in Clorox in December. Icahn is offering a premium of 21 percent based on the price of Clorox shares before it invested in the company. Its shares have traded between $60.65 and $72.43 in the last 12 months.

Other Clorox products also include Brita water filters, K C Masterpiece sauces, Kingsford charcoal, and Glad food and trash products.

[Associated Press]

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