Reuters – A hedge fund that holds 9 percent of U.S. biotechnology company Chiron Corp.’s (CHIR.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares on Thursday said itplans to vote against a planned acquisition by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG (NOVN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) next month.
Chiron on Thursday said it will hold a special meeting of shareholders on April 12 to vote to approve its proposed deal with Novartis.
ValueAct Capital, which has held Chiron shares since December 2004, has been fighting hard to block the deal for several months, saying that Novartis, which already owns the majority of Chiron shares, had inside information that allowed it to take the company away from minority shareholders before they knew the business was turning.
“We look forward to casting our votes against this unfair deal,” Mason Morfit, a partner at the San Francisco hedge fund, told Reuters.
