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Best Practices

The Hedge Fund Sleight of Hand

Not only do funds sometimes control more than a company can see, they often have hedged away the risk

By Duncan Wood | Updated on January 01, 2007

Very rarely will a chief executive publicly accuse his company’s biggest external shareholder of acting in a way that “defies common sense.” Nor will a CEO typically allege that the shareholder plans to railroad the company and other investors into a merger that none of them want–but then it’s not every day that a company has to take its biggest shareholder to court either. The company in question is Multi-Fineline Electronix (or M-Flex for short)–a fast-growing maker of circuit boards in Anaheim, Calif.–and the shareholder, hedge fund Stark Investments. On Oct. 11, M-Flex sued Stark over the hedge fund’s plans to vote in favor of a proposed $500 million deal for M-Flex to buy its Singapore-based competitor, MFS Technology.

According to statements accompanying the lawsuit, which was filed in the federal district court for the Central District of California, M-Flex management initiated the merger at the end of March, but after MFS published disappointing third-quarter results in August, M-Flex had a change of heart.

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