"According to the agreement, Pentax will cease to be a subsidiary of Hoya as it will be fully merged into Hoya as of March 31, 2008. Each business unit of Pentax will become a part of Hoya's main body as a member unit of a flat organization.
Pentax elected to distribute cash to shareholders in consideration for the merger rather than shares, reports PEN News Weekly. The integration of the management of Hoya and Pentax was conducted through Hoya's cash tender offer for all shares of Pentax. As a result of discussion by the two companies after the tender offer, Pentax concluded that the cash distribution will be appropriate from the perspective of its financial strategy.
With the decision by the two companies, Pentax will offer the shareholders who did not tender their shares in the Tender Offer an opportunity to exit their investment in Pentax on similar terms at ¥770 ($6.69) per share, to avoid any disadvantage due to any fluctuations in the market price of Pentax shares. According to the latest decision, Pentax will be delisted from Tokyo Stock Exchange on Nov. 31, and Pentax as a company will be dissolved on March 31, 2008, to close its history 89 years after its establishment in 1919. The trademark "Pentax," however, will continue to exist.
In separate news, Pentax reported consolidated sales increased 14.8 percent for the first half (April-September) of its fiscal year 2007/2008 to end March 2008 year-on-year to ¥85.69 billion ($745 million) boosted by a solid rise in sales of digital cameras and camera modules. Operating profit for the period totaled ¥3.33 billion (US$28.9 million), up 114.7 percent year-on-year. Net profit for the period, however, was down 46 percent from the previous year's first half and totaled ¥586 million (US$5 million). The drop in net profit was due to write-off of a special loss from evaluation of inventory assets.
Within the imaging system segment including digital cameras, sales rose 15.4 percent to ¥42.8 billion (US$372 million). Operating profit totaled ¥2.46 billion (US$20.8 million), for a year-on-year increase of 976 percent, boosted by strong sales of K10D DSLR cameras launched in November 2006 and Optio series compact digital cameras."
Source:
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