NEW YORK- -- Shares in M&F Worldwide, the parent of check printer Harland Clarke, soared 40% to $23.88 as the markets opened this morning after MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, owned by billionaire corporate financier Ronald O. Perelman, offered to take the company private at a 41% premium.
MacAndrews and Forbes, which already owns 43% of M&F, proposed buying the remaining shares at $24 each. Shares in M&F closed Friday at $16.96, and have traded as high as $30.77 over the past 52 weeks.
M&F is the parent of Harland Financial Solutions, Scantron, Flavor Holdings and Harland Clarke, the world’s largest check printer which was created by Perelman’s 2005 acquisition of Clarke American and the 2007 deal for John H. Harland Co.
Perelman, who made his name during the 1970's and 1980's as a corporate raider, is the sole owner of MacAndrews and Forbes, which also owns Revlon cosmetics, Allied Services, Deluxe Entertainment, Scientific Games, Panavision and American general, among others.
M&F is expected to appoint a special committee of its board to review the going-private proposal.
