HOUSTON– LAWFUEL – US Legal News –Federated Kaufmann Small Cap Fund a New York-based mutual fund owning 900,000 shares of the common stock of EGL, Inc. (NASDAQ:EAGL), an international logistics and transportation company headquartered in Houston, today filed a lawsuit challenging the proposed buyout of EGL by James R. Crane, EGL’s Chairman and CEO, together with two private equity firms.
In a complaint filed in the District Court of Harris County, Texas, on March 27, Federated Kaufmann asserts that the $38 per share buyout price is grossly inadequate, and that the EGL Board of Directors rushed to approve it despite knowing that Apollo Management L.P., another private equity firm, was about to make a higher offer. The next day, Apollo offered $40 per share for the company.
The complaint alleges that the bidding process was cut off prematurely in order to favor Crane’s acquisition of the company, in violation of fiduciary duties owed by EGL’s directors to its shareholders. It also alleges that the directors’ approval of a $30 million windfall termination fee plus $15 million in transaction expenses to be paid by EGL to Crane in the event that Apollo were to acquire EGL, was wrongful.
Federated Kaufmann is represented by Lowey Dannenberg Bemporad Selinger & Cohen, P.C. of White Plains, New York, a leading law firm regularly representing institutional investors in litigation to protect their rights.
