Bruker BioSciences Corp. (BRKR)

[MSC290]

Family scales back secondary offering of Bruker stock

September 18, 2009 by MassDevice staff

A proposed deal by members of the founding family of the Billerica, Mass.-based maker of scientific equipment is cut by nearly two-thirds.


The Billerica, Mass.-based manufacturer of medical imaging equipment and chemical detection devices announced Friday that the mother and brother of Bruker CEO Frank Laukien intend to soon sell 12 million shares through a secondary offering of stock.

At its current price, Isolde Laukien-Kleiner would receive about $2 million in proceeds from the offering while Marc Laukien is in line for slightly more than $10 million. The company will not receive any money through the offering, which is being managed by Goldman, Sachs & Co., J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank Securities.

The number of shares being offered is down significantly from the nearly 20 million shares the two were planning to sell earlier this summer when Bruker filed a shelf registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Dirk Laukien — a Bruker vice president and Marc and Frank Laukien's half-brother — also withdrew his bid to sell a sizable portion of his Bruker holdings as part of the current offering.

Dirk Laukien had planned to sell up to 14,200 Bruker shares.

Both Marc Laukien and his mother — neither of whom are active with the company — along with several other family members have been steadily reducing their respective stakes in Bruker in recent years. The family sold a combined 22.4 million shares through a pair of secondary offerings in early 2007 and in 2004 and have also used private stock sales and a 2006 merger with Bruker Optics to cash out sizable portions of their holdings.

As part of the current deal, Frank Laukien has has agreed to a private purchase of 100,000 shares from his brother, according to a new prospectus filed late Thursday.

Bruker stock closed yesterday at $10.02 a share, up about 20 percent from the range where Bruker shares traded three months ago when the secondary offering was first proposed in June.

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