Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-107231
Chunk: 2

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-11-06
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 2
---
 Alcon Inc.’s (SIX/NYSE:ALC) November 4, 2025 investor
presentation.

The text of the letter to the Board is as follows:

November 6, 2025

STAAR Surgical Company
25510 Commercentre Drive
Lake Forest, CA 92630

Dear Members of the Board:

I congratulate the Board on STAAR Surgical’s strong results for
the third quarter ended September 26, 2025, released after market closing on November 5, 2025. We are especially encouraged to see that
STAAR has demonstrated not only operational momentum but also cost discipline progress – beating cost guidance while strengthening
its cash position – precisely the combination that positions the Company to capture the full value of its growth trajectory. Reported
operating expenses were $59.4 million; excluding $5.9 million of merger-related costs with Alcon, the underlying run rate was $53.5 million
– annualizing to $214 million and beating prior guidance of $225 million. While these savings are welcome, they represent only the
beginning of STAAR’s efficiency potential. Separately, the Company’s balance sheet strengthened sequentially, with cash, cash
equivalents, and investments rising to $192.7 million from $189.9 million at the end of the second quarter, despite ongoing merger expenses.

STAAR’s robust third quarter results provide just the latest
support for our view that STAAR’s operational and financial challenges have reflected temporary headwinds rather than structural
weaknesses. The results demonstrate our longstanding view that there is solid and accelerating demand for the Company’s ICL technology
in China, and around the world, and that recent challenges affecting the Company’s business in China stemmed from short-term distributor
inventory adjustments. The Company itself was making these points to shareholders until not long before it announced the proposed merger
with Alcon.

While ICL shipments underlying third quarter results occurred in December
2024, the fact that the related ICL procedures took place throughout 2025 reflects the recovery of the Chinese market, and further that
STAAR has trusted products and established sales channels to capitalize on this large and growing opportunity. It was also predictable
that sales in China for the first three quarters of 2025 were going to be lower than sales in the prior year – not as a result of
long-term contraction in patient demand or physician activity, but because distributors were right-sizing their inventories. Again, the
Company itself had