Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-09-24
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-091197
Chunk: 14

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-09-24
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 14
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ǐ We also believe Alcon’s latest approach to STAAR was opportunistically timed. First, for the past year, STAAR’s stock has traded below its intrinsic value, in our view, because of transitory issues with inventory in China. But the Company’s second quarter financial results and Quarterly Report on Form 10 - Q — released just a day after the Proposed Merger was announced — told a different story, reflecting an abatement of the inventory challenges the Company faced in 2024 and early 2025. 10 The Company also reported a significant reduction in its expenses, 11 which suggests, in our view, that it is well on its way to returning to substantial profitability. 12 Had investors been aware of these important facts, we believe STAAR’s stock price as an independent company would have traded significantly higher than where it was when Alcon was negotiating with the Company. In short, Alcon benefited from the fact that STAAR’s stock price did not, in our view, reflect the Company’s improved business fundamentals and growth prospects. It is worth noting that the management projections with respect to net sales and Adjusted EBITDA that STAAR’s financial advisor relied upon in issuing its fairness opinion were meaningfully higher than consensus estimates at the time the Merger was announced, 13 indicating, in our view, that the Company’s stock price and market valuation did not reflect the Company’s improving fundamentals while the Merger was being negotiated. Second, STAAR may be on the cusp of market - moving news and a significant value - creation event. An independent, randomized clinical trial comparing the outcomes of Alcon’s LASIK platform and STAAR’s EVO Implantable Collamer® Lens (“ICL”) 14 recently has been completed, and we expect the results to be published soon. We believe this study may have profound implications for the competitive positioning of the EVO ICL relative to LASIK and, therefore, for the long - term growth prospects of STAAR. It is unsurprising to us that an acquirer like Alcon might want to act quickly to buy STAAR before the results of the study are released, with the potential of meaningfully enhancing the Company’s earnings potential and intrinsic value. Alcon chose to approach the Company ahead of both of these developments. And in our view, the timing of Alcon’s approach was not coincidental. In our view, the Company would have been better situated to negotiate a transaction after the news of these critical developments was priced into the stock.