Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form Type: PX14A6G
Source: 0001193125-25-269485
Chunk: 3

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form: PX14A6G
Chunk 3
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 2023 procedure volumes were artificially depressed due to COVID-related lockdowns, while
2024 volumes were temporarily elevated by reopening-driven pent-up demand. We believe that STAAR’s year-on-year procedure
volume comparisons are impressive after accounting for the COVID dynamics and support our belief that STAAR’s challenges in China are transitory, not structural.

Selective Use of STAAR’s Guidance

We are also
concerned by the use of STAAR management’s “Current Guidance” for China ICL sales (page 7 of “Alcon’s Perspective on STAAR Acquisition”), which is selectively deployed in Alcon’s presentation. Based on our
most recent on-the-ground analysis, the market conditions for ICL in China continue to improve, a view that is supported by the Company’s earnings results.
Accordingly, we believe STAAR management’s projected 2026E sales of $160 million may be significantly understated. We further note that Alcon appears to misidentify 2024 as the year of “inventory buildup”; our research
indicates that excess inventory largely began accumulating in 2023.

STAAR could resolve these questions by releasing current and historical in-market ICL sales volume from distributors to providers. We believe this data, which has not yet been provided to shareholders, would be material to shareholder decision-making — and, in this case, would
further reinforce the strong shareholder opposition to the proposed merger.

Selective Use of McKinsey & Co’s Comments on the Chinese Economy

We also want to call out Alcon’s selective references to a report by McKinsey & Co. entitled
“Mid-year update: Five surprises from China’s consumer market” published on August 13, 2025. Alcon quoted the report’s statement that “Despite the return of growth in several
sectors, China’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) remains near historic lows and has only gradually been recovering. Concerns about employment, economic stability, and especially the ongoing property downturn are still top of mind.”
However, Alcon failed to acknowledge that, in the same report, McKinsey & Co stated that consumer sentiment in China “remains well above the levels of sentiment in mature markets like the United States, Western Europe, or
Japan.” The report also observed that Chinese consumers are “willing to spend again,” with retail sales growing 5% year-on-year in the first half of
2025, propelled by “a surge in innovation and shifting consumer behavior” and beating market expectations.

In another instance of selective quotation, Al