TIMELINE-Yang’s year-long chase for Harbin Electric
Following are some milestones in the year-old saga:2010:Oct 11 - Harbin says CEO Tianfu Yang and his affiliates
offer $24 per share to take the company private.Oct 29 - Harbin says board to consider CEO’s go-private
proposal.Nov 23 - Yang ends an exclusive financing agreement with
private equity firm Baring Private Equity Asia, raising concerns
over his plans to take Harbin private.Enters into term loan facility agreement with China
Development Bank.2011:April 15 - Yang says has lined up necessary funding for his
$24/share offer.June 10 - Harbin says Yang and Abax Global Capital reaffirm
their offer, which is worth $750 million, after a research firm
raised doubts about the deal.June 16 - Harbin shares drop sharply as a short-seller
report prompted investors to bail out rather than wait to see if
a proposed bid would come to fruition.June 17 - Harbin says the short-seller report was “factually
incorrect.”June 20 - Harbin agrees to Yang’s offer.July 13 - Harbin files preliminary merger proxy statement
with U.S. regulators, increasing investor confidence in its
CEO-led buyout.Aug 3 - Harbin shares sharply fall again. This time,
short-seller Citron Research says a management buyout will never
come to fruition. The stock later recovers.Aug 5 - Harbin denies any Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) investigation against it.Sept 6 - Citron Research, quoting a financial blog, says
Harbin is involved in land purchase fraud. The Alfredlittle.com
blog accuses Harbin of “stealing money from shareholders”.
Harbin denies the allegations.Harbin says China Development Bank Corp remains committed to
funding a planned CEO-led buyout.Sept 29 - Harbin starts mailing proxies for a shareholder
meeting to vote on the go-private deal.Oct 17 - Harbin says proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder
Services (ISS) has recommended shareholders vote for the Yang
go-private offer.Oct 18 - Harbin says two more proxy advisers — Glass Lewis
& Co and Egan-Jones Proxy Services — ask shareholders to vote
for the deal.