important info for shareholders, page-38

The Australian 28/4/2009

Arana investor backflips

THE $318 million takeover of Arana Therapeutics has taken an interesting twist.

The biotech's largest individual shareholder, who got the takeover rolling by selling a chunk of shares to Cephalon Holdings in February, has seemingly changed his mind about the merits of the deal.

Malaysian-based investor Lim Sen Yap pocketed $37 million when he decided to sell the majority of his 14 per cent stake in Arana to the US-based suitor. He later agreed to sell another bundle of shares to Cephalon once the off-market bid opened.

But that was before a group of retail shareholders commissioned an independent expert's opinion on the deal, which suggested the Cephalon offer potentially undervalued Arana by as much as $150 million.

"It appears that we have made a very grave mistake," a spokesman for Yap conceded yesterday. "We are red-faced."

Yap still holds several million shares in Arana and it is understood that he plans to hold out for a higher price.

And going by the rate of acceptance -- it's taken five weeks for Cephalon to get to 35 per cent -- he's not the only one.