Private equity firm GTCR announces Protection One has agreed to pay public shareholders $3.25 million to settle lawsuits over its deal to
acquire the nation’s third largest security provider.
The payment is worth about 40 cents per share.
On April 26, Protection One agreed to be acquired by affiliates of Chicago-based GTCR through a tender offer of $15.50 per share in cash. The total purchase price of the transaction will be about $828 million, including the refinancing of Protection One’s debt.
An investor lawsuit filed in Delaware State Court alleged that Protection One and its majority shareholders, private equity firms Quadrangle Capital Partners and Monarch Alternative Capital LP, breached their fiduciary duty toward other shareholders by irrevocably tendering their shares to GTCR’s offer, immediately satisfying the 60-percent minimum tender offer requirement.
GTCR and Protection One deny the allegations, and said the proposed settlement covers another lawsuit filed in District Court of Douglas County (Kan.) as well.
GTCR also said it has extended the expiration date of the tender offer for all outstanding common shares of Protection One. The offer will now expire at 9 a.m. (ET) June 4, unless it is further extended or terminated. The deal was previously scheduled to expire June 2.
