WASHINGTON ― Cubic Corp. said Wednesday it has accepted a proposal to sell itself for $75 per share to Veritas Capital and Elliott Management affiliate Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., capping a bidding war for the defense and transportation technology firm.
The all-cash transaction will be valued at approximately $3 billion, including debt, Cubic said. The San Diego, California-based company has been publicly traded since 1959.
Cubic said its board considered a larger, unsolicited offer of $78 per share from Singapore’s ST Engineering, but the offer it took was in the best interests of shareholders “based on the superior certainty and anticipated timing of closing the existing transaction.” Cubic said it has ended talks with ST Engineering.
Amid concerns over ST Engineering’s ability to clear regulatory hurdles for foreign investment in U.S. firms, the Singaporean firm planned to sell off Cubic’s defense business to the Blackstone Group, a global investment firm, Washington Technology reported. ST Engineering is half-owned by Temasek Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund controlled by Singapore’s national government.
Veritas struck a deal in December to buy Northrop Grumman’s federal IT and mission support business for $3.4 billion, after it bought IT services firm Perspecta for $7.1 billion and bought L3Harris Technolgies’ government IT services business for $690 million.
Elliott, led by activist hedge fund manager Paul Singer, manages a combined $42 billion of assets.
Cubic has scheduled a shareholder meeting for April 27 to discuss the offer.
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
