Company: STAA
Filing Date: 2025-10-09
Form Type: DFAN14A
Source: 0001213900-25-097833
Chunk: 10

Company: STAAR SURGICAL CO
Filing Date: 2025-10-09
Form: DFAN14A
Chunk 10
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projected that the Company would generate twice as much EBITDA in 2027 as the most profitable year in STAAR’s history. Then, just
ten days later — notably, after Alcon agreed to pay $28 per share for STAAR, triggering the accelerated vesting of management’s
unearned shares and $55 million in compensation upon closing of the deal — management suddenly revised its forecast, sharply reducing
its 2027 EBITDA forecast by 20%.

Despite what the Board now claims, creating
two sets of projections within ten days during an M&A process — one for enticing a counterparty to bid, and another to justify
an otherwise inadequate price that resulted from a cursory and failed negotiation — is highly unusual and suspect.

STAAR’s proxy statement explains
the two sets of projections:

STAAR management prepared certain preliminary
unaudited prospective financial information for STAAR on a standalone basis for fiscal years 2025 through 2027. … The July Diligence
Projections were provided to Alcon in July 2025 as part of its due diligence process. Following the preparation of the July Diligence
Projections, STAAR’s management team continued to refine and assess its estimates and judgments for STAAR’s future operations,
incorporating further risk-adjusted expectations for net sales of ICLs and new product introductions. Management considered multiple factors,
including emerging competition in China, that could impact growth rates and overall future financial results to arrive at the expectations
reflected in the Projections. Relative to [these later] Projections, the July Diligence Projections assumed incremental ICL net sales
in 2026 and 2027 and incremental net sales attributable to ongoing and accelerated new product introductions in 2027. In early August
2025, the Projections were provided to the Board in connection with its evaluation of the Merger, and were provided to Citi and approved
by STAAR for Citi’s use and reliance in connection with Citi’s financial analysis and opinion.

The July projections provided to Alcon included
adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $142 million in 2027; the August projections provided to STAAR’s
bankers for their fairness opinion — after the management team had a bit more time to “refine and assess its estimates and
judgments” — had $113 million of 2027 EBITDA. It is a bit unusual to prepare two sets of
projections, a