Davis Ups Ante for Takeover of Carter-Wallace

Billionaire investor Marvin Davis boosted his takeover bid for Carter-Wallace Inc. to $20 a share on Monday, just two weeks after the maker of Trojan condoms and Arrid deodorant turned thumbs down on an earlier bid of $18 a share.

A spokeswoman for Davis said the sweetened proposal from the financier’s Los Angeles-based Davis Cos. was valued at $928 million, based on Carter-Wallace’s 46.39 million shares outstanding, up from the original price of $835 million.

She said Davis notified Carter-Wallace Chairman Henry Hoyt Jr. and the company’s board of directors in a letter Friday.

A spokesman for Carter-Wallace said the company had “no comment at this point” on Davis Cos.’ new bid.

After the news, Carter-Wallace’s stock jumped $1.25 to close at $16 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The Carter-Wallace takeover drive began Oct. 30 when Carter-Wallace, which is headquartered in New York, said it had received the $18-a-share bid from Davis.

Two days later, Carter-Wallace’s majority shareholder, CPI Development Corp., said it had no interest in selling its shares for $18 each.

At that point, the 70-year-old Davis said an independent committee should be formed to determine whether the buyout price was in the best interest of shareholders.

He also said he would consider a higher bid “if one can be justified.”

A former chairman of Paramount Studios, Davis recently was one of several dissident stockholders of Mesa Inc. who tried to wrest control of that company from oilman T. Boone Pickens.

Davis is also developing a riverboat casino and entertainment center in Boonville, Mo.

Privately held Carter-Wallace has long been viewed as an acquisition target. At the company’s meeting in July, some stockholders criticized its low stock price but a shareholder proposal to consider a merger was rejected.