Financials

Signet settles dispute with Zale shareholders

FinancialsAug 16, 2015

Signet settles dispute with Zale shareholders

Signet Jewelers Ltd. has agreed to pay several Zale shareholders a total of $34 million in a dispute over the per-share price Signet paid when it acquired Zale last year.

Akron, Ohio--Signet Jewelers Ltd. announced Friday that it has settled a dispute with three separate groups of Zale Corp. shareholders over the per-share price Signet paid when it acquired its rival last year.

In June 2014, shortly after Zale Corp. shareholders approved the merger with Signet, Merion Capital L.P., et al. filed a petition for appraisal in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware. Following an acquisition, shareholders can file petitions for appraisal, asking a court to determine the “fair value” of shares at the time of an acquisition.

TIG Arbitrage Opportunity Fund I, L.P. filed on Aug. 26, and The Gabelli ABC Fund et al. followed about a month later, on Sept. 24. All told, the petitioners owned approximately 8.8 million shares of Zale stock.

In October 2014, the Court of Chancery consolidated the three petitions into one case.  

The case was scheduled to go to trial this October but last week Signet and the shareholders reached a settlement in which Signet agreed to pay them $34.2 million. The settlement doesn’t change the $21 per share price the shareholders received at the time of the acquisition.

As a result of the settlement, the Court of Chancery dismissed the petition.  A Signet spokesman said the settlement and the court’s dismissal end all pending appraisal actions.

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.

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