Harbinger Group Proposes $10 Per Share Offer For Central Garden & Pet Company

Early Monday morning, Harbinger Group HRG released its most current letter to Central Garden & Pet Company CENT in an attempt to garner support from Central Garden's shareholders.

The letter contained two proposals

1. Acquire the Company at a price of $10.00 in cash per share of Common
   Stock, Class A Common Stock and Class B Stock.
2. Acquire the Pet segment for $750 million in cash.

The first option would represent a 27.5 percent premium to the closing price of Central's shares on June 6, the last trading day before Harbinger sent its first letter. In the letter Harbinger noted that the current valuation is based on publicly available information because, despite numerous attempts, Central's board has remained unwilling to provide access to customary diligence materials.

Harbinger Group currently controls, through a wholly owned subsidiary, 4.5 and 4.4 percent of Central's Class A Common Stock and Common Stock, respectively.

Management at Harbinger believes there is wide support for a deal among Central's shareholders and in Monday's letter wrote, "Based on the reactions we have heard from many of the Company's stockholders in response to our June 9 letter, we believe that the Company's stockholders emphatically support the Board's entering into a constructive and professional dialogue with us, and see absolutely no downside in doing so."