Olympus Paid $687 Million in Advisory Fees in Gyrus Purchase
October 18, 2011, 10:57 PM EDTBy Mariko Yasu
(Adds share price decline in paragraph four.)
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Olympus Corp., the world’s biggest maker of endoscopes, said it paid a total of $687 million in advisory fees for its acquisition of Gyrus Group Plc in 2008.
The financial advisory contract was for services including proposals on buyout targets and structuring transactions, the company said in a statement today. The fees paid between 2006 and 2010 included a $443 million buyback of preferred shares, it said.
Olympus issued the statement in response to research commissioned by its former President Michael C. Woodford, which said the Tokyo-based company may face legal scrutiny because of payments made to advisers in the 2008 transaction. The research includes “assumptions” and “speculations” and is misleading, Olympus said in the statement.
Shares in Olympus have plunged 45 percent since Oct. 13, the day before the company fired Woodford, wiping out $3.9 billion of the company’s market capitalization. The shares fell 3 percent, or 40 yen, to 1,377 yen in morning trading today.
The camera maker is considering suing Woodford for causing confusion among management and damaging enterprise value, it said.
--With assistance from Go Onomitsu and Peter Langan in Tokyo. Editors: Peter Langan, Aaron Sheldrick
To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Langan at plangan@bloomberg.net
