Bass Family Acquires Stake in Beckman : Investment: Texas group buys a 5.3% interest in the Fullerton medical instruments maker. The family has a reputation for shaking up companies.
Despite the Bass family’s reputation for shaking up companies in which they invest, Beckman Instruments officials said Wednesday that they “welcomed” the disclosure that the wealthy Texans had acquired a 5.3% stake in the medical instruments maker.
An investment group led by the Basses bought its Beckman shares for investment purposes and has “had, and expects to continue to have, discussions with management . . . concerning various ways of maximizing long-term shareholder value,” according to the filing.
Analysts speculated that those discussions may prompt Beckman to improve its profitability by selling money-losing units and reducing costs. Beckman has had a generally lackluster financial performance since it was spun off from SmithKline Beckman Corp. in 1989.
On Wednesday, a day after the filing was disclosed, Beckman’s shares closed at a 52-week high of $21.625, up 37.5 cents. The stock gained $1.50 a share on Tuesday.
Jay Steffenhagen, a Beckman spokesman, said the company welcomed the Basses’ interest and added that “our management objective is very clearly focused on shareholder value.”
“Our intentions would appear to be parallel with the intentions of the group which filed,” Steffenhagen said. “We are working to provide a return to the shareholders which they will find attractive over time.
“I think that Beckman has a very strong position in its markets. In addition to that, the company’s focus on the biological sciences and health care represents a very attractive investment opportunity in the coming decade.”
The Basses acquired 1.5 million of Beckman’s 29.1 million shares outstanding. During the past 60 days, the group bought shares at prices ranging from $17.26 on Dec. 10 to $20.19 on Jan. 10.
A Bass family spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Stock purchases greater than 5% require a filing with the SEC. The Basses’ purchases of just slightly more than 5% led some analysts to speculate that the family wanted to let the financial world know of its interest in Beckman.
The five members of the Bass family were listed as having $5.8 billion in assets in a 1990 list of the 100 richest Texans compiled by Texas Monthly magazine. They were ranked third behind Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot and Dallas financier Harold Clark Simmons.
The family was listed last year as having an interest in or options on 27 blocks of downtown Ft. Worth.
The SEC filing says the purchasers include the Bass Management Trust, family patriarch Perry R. Bass and his son, Lee M. Bass.
In 1981, the Basses began building a stake in Marathon Oil, prompting a messy takeover fight that resulted in Marathon’s being owned by U.S. Steel. The Basses made a $160-million profit. The Basses acquired 10% of Texaco in 1984, persuading the oil giant to buy back the stock to make them go away. The Basses earned a $450-million profit on the deal.
Times staff writer Gregory Crouch contributed to this report.
