Lee M. Thomas, Airgas board member and chairman of the Airgas Governance and Compensation committee, explained why Airgas rejected Air Products' original and subsequent offer. Air Products v. Airgas is being webcast live by CVN.
Mr. Thomas testified that Air Products' offer was "way below what fair value was," and that the subsequent two-dollar bump was not a meaningful difference and did not change the nature of the discussion.
Mr. Thomas said, "There's clearly an industrial benefit" to Air Products in attempting the acquisition, which "would be quite additive to both their structure and their earnings...they were just totally out of the range of any reasonable kind of discussion, and I think they're still totally out of the range."
"I think we'll be trading through $65.50 in 2011," and that Air Products was "trying to buy the company on the cheap."
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