Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

The foremost example of minority shareholders getting screwed is probably the Brazilian oil company, Petrobras (PBR), which is majority-owned by the federal government. (I commented on PBR a few years ago in #msg-51214642; by and large, my opinion remains the same.)

In biotech, the “tracking stocks” floated by such companies as Genzyme during the biotech bubble circa 2000 produced tracking-stock shareholders who lacked any BoD representation and hence were effectively minority shareholders. Many of these shareholders got hosed pretty badly, although some were able to improve their lot via litigation.

Ironically (given the origin of TGTX’s drugs), LFB Biotechnologies/GTC Biotechnology is another instance. After LFB became the majority owner of GTCB, it bought out the minority shareholders at a fire-sale price.