Exceed Company, the Chinese marketer of the Xidelong brand, is set to go private and to be delisted from Nasdaq, after it sealed an agreement allowing interests around Exceed's chairman and chief executive, Shuipan Lin, to take over the company. The offer, which implies an equity value of about $60.1 million for Exceed on a fully diluted basis, still has to be approved by more than 70 percent of the company's shareholders, among other conditions.
Discussions on this transaction started in August, when Exceed's board received a non-binding offer from Lin and his partners. They already held about 66.5 percent of the company's shares at the time and offered $1.72 for each of the ordinary shares they did not already hold.
The current agreement calls for Pan Long Company and one of its subsidiaries to buy Exceed at $1.78 per ordinary share, which is a premium of 19.5 percent over the closing price of August 16, the last trading day before the non-binding offer was announced, and a 24.4 percent premium over the volume-weighted average closing price of the company's shares during the 30 trading days prior to August 16.
Pan Long Company is an exempted company with limited liability incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands and wholly owned by Lin. Once the deal is implemented, Pan Long would be owned by Lin and seven other current Exceed shareholders. Lin has committed to subscribe for ordinary Pan Long shares in the amount of just over $19.5 million. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year.
