PHILADELPHIA, PA—Construction and engineering firm Hill International says its Board of Directors unanimously rejected an unsolicited takeover proposal it received Monday from DC Capital Partners, LLC to acquire Hill at a purchase price of $5.50 per share in cash on a fully-diluted basis.
After “thoroughly considering DCCP's proposal,” Hill says its board determined that the proposal “substantially undervalues Hill's common stock given the company's current strategic plans and prospects for continued growth and stockholder value creation, among other considerations, and therefore that acceptance of the proposal is not in the best interests of the company or its stockholders.”
The company's board also adopted a shareholder rights plan often referred to as a “poison pill,” that would distribute to shareholders the right to purchase additional shares in the event of a “coercive and opportunistic takeover.”
"Hill's management team has a strategic plan in place that we believe will significantly increase stockholder value," says David L. Richter, Hill's president and chief executive officer. "We believe that DCCP's extremely inadequate offer attempts to hijack this value creation away from our existing public stockholders and put it into their private pockets, and our Board found this offer to be completely unacceptable."
Hill, which just relocated its corporate headquarters to Philadelphia from Marlton, NJ, has 4,800 professionals in 100 offices worldwide.
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