Elan has offered to sell a minority interest in itself. Simultaneously, Jack Schuler [of Crabtree] has initiated a war of letters with the CoB and is targeting Kelly Martin as ineffective. I spent a little time looking at Schuler's track record. I still don't know what to make of it or him and his interest in ELN...
Here are my rough notes. Is there anything that stands out as significant for ELN or do you have insights into his real target? Does anyone know how much impact he had at Chiron or Icos? He does have lots of contacts.
Crabtree is essentially Schuler and Jack Patience. Like many of the hedgies or private funds, they buy in their names not the Crabtree name. Most of Schuler's history is hashed over pretty well on the Investorvillage ELN MB, but one pattern I found that I hadn't seen on IV was the buyouts...
Director of Chiron, bought out by NVS 2004
Director of ICOS, bought out by LLY 2006
Director of VMSI, bought out by Roche 2008
He has obviously been part of dealmaking for a while and probably knows a lot of the folks in that business. He is a filing owner in several companies with the likes of Wellington, Fido, etc. Since he lives just north of Chicago [Lake Forest], he could well be acquainted with Sam Isaly [Orbimed], who increased his holdings by 300+% up to 1.5%.
As I read the SEC documents, it seems to me, that he has a significant role in Stericycle, SRCL [med waste]and its HQ is in Lake Forest. The QDEL paperwork talks about his significant experience in medical diagnostics and devices... other than VMSI I don't see the diags. The devices, well he has been on the Medtronics board since 1991 [don't know what role he plays on that board].
Follow the money... He is obviously close to Feinberg and Oracle, but I believe he is closer to Bain Capital. He has two of their reps on the SRCL board with him. He has a number of political ties to Romney [of Bain].
Current holdings that are registered:
QDEL 7&
SRCL 3%
MDT .3%
TTHI 13%
ELN 1.X%
GTXI 5%+/- [recent purchase?]
Conclusions:
1. He is not a deep biotech investor, but rather across the field of Health care.
2. He is a shrewd investor at identifying under appreciated companies and then working to get them a better price at buyout.
3. He seems very focused and doesn't really fight simultaneous battles [unlike Carl Icahn]
3. He doesn't have to have a buyout if the company does well in share price appreciation.
4. His ability to bring 37% holders to a meeting is commensurate with his contacts and proven track record.
5. His real target might be doing something with TTHI and using ELN as a lever?
6. He probably doesn't have any better ideas for really fixing ELN than the SI or IVMB has, but he may have the resources and contacts to make something happen.
7. Reading some of the annual reports of the companies he is a director of, he does seem to be appreciated by them for his strong interest and support.
8. I find the dealing with both NVS and Roche to be a little strange. He would not the first US diagnostics CoB to have really pissed off Herr Hummer... Yet the deal did get done. It seems like he wanted VMSI to remain independent.
graham
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