Checkpoint Systems being bought
Checkpoint Systems Inc., the Gloucester County company that supplies retail stores with electronic pricing and security tags and readers, has agreed to be acquired by Canada-based label and packaging maker CCL Industries Inc. for $443 million in cash, or $10.15 a share.
Checkpoint Systems Inc., the Gloucester County company that supplies retail stores with electronic pricing and security tags and readers, has agreed to be acquired by Canada-based label and packaging maker CCL Industries Inc. for $443 million in cash, or $10.15 a share.
Checkpoint CEO George Babich, who headed Pep Boys in the early 2000s, called the price "highly attractive." However, the sale price is less than the company's value from 2013 until spring 2015.
The proposed price is already being questioned by NorthStar Partners, a Westport, Conn., company that owns nearly 4 percent of Checkpoint. NorthStar managing partner Andrew Jones, in a letter to management, said Thursday that Checkpoint is "acutely" undervalued and that it wouldn't let the sale go through without a challenge. Jones said his firm feels "extreme disappointment" in the plan to sell the company "below the true intrinsic value of the business."
Checkpoint employs nearly 4,800 at its Gloucester County plant and other facilities. Checkpoint's board approved the deal, but it needs ratification from a majority of Checkpoint shareholders.
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