Anchor Glass Rejects $280-Million Buyout Offer

Anchor Glass Container Corp., America’s No. 2 glass maker, said today that its board of directors has unanimously rejected a $20-per-share takeover bid by Vitro, Sociedad Anonima, of Monterrey, Mexico.

The board recommended that stockholders turn down the $280-million buyout offer from the Mexican manufacturer as not being in their best interest.

Anchor, which ranks behind Corning, said the board’s decision was based in part on the receipt of an opinion from its financial adviser, Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., which called the offer financially inadequate.

Meanwhile, Anchor said its board has instructed management to work with the company’s legal and financial advisers to explore and investigate a “variety of alternative courses of action intended to maximize stockholder values.”

Vitro had called Anchor a struggling company that could not control its future and claimed that Anchor’s plants needed upgrading. Anchor denied Vitro’s claims.

Vitro has said it wants to merge Anchor and Latchford Glass Co. of Huntington Park, Calif. Latchford President Clifford L. Jones had already been picked by Vitro to head the merged operations.

In light of the offer and rejection, Anchor said the board has unanimously adopted a stockholder rights plan, which it said is similar to plans adopted by many other publicly traded companies.

The plan provides for preferred stock purchase rights that will be distributed as a dividend at the rate of one right for each share of common stock held at the close of business Sept. 1, 1989.