Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) says it submitted yesterday yet another bid for control of Coherent, Inc. (NASDAQ: COHR). Lumentum has offered $230.00 per share in cash and 0.6724 shares of Lumentum common stock for each Coherent share, which equates to $287.50 per Coherent share based on Lumentum's closing stock price on March 22, 2021 and a total of approximately $7.03 billion. Lumentum says the offer is good until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on March 24, 2021 – which should give rival II-VI (NASDAQ:IIVI) time to assemble a counterproposal.
If the offer is accepted and final, Lumentum says it will fund the offer via a combination of cash on hand from the combined company's balance sheet, $3.25 billion in new debt financing from a fully committed Term Loan B, and a previously announced $1 billion equity investment from Silver Lake. The deal would be expected to close in the second half of this calendar year, subject to approval by the two companies’ respective stockholders, receipt of remaining regulatory approvals (including from China and South Korea), and other customary closing conditions.
Coherent’s board has acknowledge receipt of the bid, which came in response to the latest proposal from II-VI, which the Coherent board deemed superior to Lumentum’s previous offer (see “New round of Coherent bidding sees II-VI still on top”). Coherent originally agreed to be acquired by Lumentum in January (see “Lumentum to buy Coherent to expand laser and photonics reach”).
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