Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel – Shares of Boca Raton-based Nabi Biopharmaceuticals rose nearly 5 percent Wednesday after hedge fund Third Point LLC urged the biotech firm to allow Bank of America Corp. to explore a possible sale of all or part of the company.<\/p>\n
Nabi’s stock closed at $5.15, up 24 cents, on a volume of 1.2 million shares — about twice the normal daily average.<\/p>\n
Third Point, which is the largest Nabi shareholder with 9.5 percent of the outstanding shares, said the vaccine and drug maker’s decision in June to hire Bank of America as a consultant was a ploy to temporarily appease shareholders upset about poor performance.<\/p>\n
Bank of America “has so far been hamstrung by a nebulous mandate” and “needs to be empowered to evaluate strategic alternatives,” the hedge fund’s executive director, Daniel Loeb, wrote in a letter to Nabi’s board and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.<\/p>\n