Western Union Target of ‘Mini Tender Offer’

DENVER – Just weeks after becoming a public company again, Western Union has become the target of a so-called mini tender offer from Canadian investment company TRC Capital Corp. The world’s leading remittance company said the $22.50 a share offer for up to five million shares does not offer enough of a premium. TRC has made similar mini-tenders for drug-maker Wyeth, oil giant Chevron and JDS Uniphase, the maker of optical network equipment. In a mini tender offer and investor makes a bid for less than 5% of a company’s stock, meaning it does not have to disclose the offer to the public through a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Instead of a premium, TRC Capital often bids for shares at a discount in these tenders. Unlike other tender offers, the seller can't back out after acceptance. The offer comes a little over a month after Western Union was spun off from First Data Corp., returning to the public markets for the first time in a decade.