Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-22
Form Type: PX14A6G
Source: 0001193125-25-210012
Chunk: 3

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-22
Form: PX14A6G
Chunk 3
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 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 6, 2025. The Company noted that “The level of inventory owned by our distributors in China
has decreased substantially since December 27, 2024, and has now returned to historical levels. We expect our China revenue will normalize in the second half of fiscal 2025, as our distributors increase their purchases of ICLs to meet
forecasted demand.”

Furthermore, the Company’s largest customer in China, a publicly listed medical institution, recently
reported at the Goldman Sachs’ Asia Leaders Conference 2025 that it has maintained a 10% overall revenue growth target, with its revenue growth target for refractive surgery slightly higher. Such growth for the Company’s largest Chinese
customer bodes well for the prospects of STAAR, which manufactures phakic implantable lenses used worldwide in corrective (or “refractive”) surgery. We are also optimistic about medium- and long-term geopolitical and trade relations
between the United States and China, which we believe will provide an additional support to the macroeconomic climate in both countries and the business prospects of STAAR more particularly.

The Proposed Consideration to Shareholders Significantly Undervalues the Company

Third, the Proposed Merger significantly undervalues the Company and gives Alcon the ability to capture that upside without paying a meaningful premium. For
the past year, the Company’s stock has traded below its intrinsic value, in our view, because of transitory issues with inventory in China, which is in the course of being resolved. In support of that view, the Company’s second quarter
financial results and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q—released just a day after the Proposed Merger was announced—reflected a decline of the inventory challenges the Company faced in 2024 and early
2025. The Company also reported a significant reduction in its expenses and has significant cost efficiency potential to be further implemented without material revenue impact. This suggests, in our view, that the Company is well on its way to
returning to substantial profitability. Further, while the Board touts that the Proposed Merger price of $28 per share represents a premium of approximately 59% and 51% to the 90-day volume weighted average
price and closing price, respectively, of the Company’s common stock at the time the Merger Agreement was announced on August 4, 2025, the Board has failed to note that the offer price of $28 per share represents a discount