Aaron Feuerstein, former owner and CEO of Malden Mills, has made another bid to buy the company back from creditors and its largest shareholder, GE Capital, but the board of directors at Malden has subsequently turned it down. The boards response has been described as “confusing,” “peculiar,” and “counter-intuitive” since the offer prepared by Feuerstein includes loan guarantee commitment from the Export-Import Bank of up to $35 million, $17.5 million in cash and equity from a property developer in Boston and an undisclosed amount of financing from a major bank.
“I was so terribly disappointed that the board just turned this thing down without any discussion whatsoever with me,” Mr. Feuerstein told a local paper. “Not only because I had worked especially hard and we put together a debt and equity purchase, which I can't imagine anyone else in the world being able to match, but the purpose of it is to meet the mission of the company, which is part of my family, to secure and grow the jobs at Lawrence, Mass., and Hudson, N.H.”
Malden Mills spokesman James Harder said in a statement, “Mr. Feuerstein's offer was nowhere near the contractual option price. If he were to make an offer at the option price, then the company would accept it.” Feuersteins offer was said to exceed the original buy-back price of $92 million, but come in well below the $124 million price tag the company now has. The longer it takes Feuerstein to come up with the financing for the deal, the higher the price rises.
