<Bz28>Bisys shares drop as buyout hopes wane
NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Shares of Bisys Group Inc., a provider of administration and accounting services for mutual and hedge funds, fell as much as 12 percent after reports that the company is struggling to find a buyer.
The company already rejected a bid below its share price from a buyout firm and may not get a better one, on-line news service Deal Reporter said today, citing unidentified people.
“Our expectation was that a sale should have happened by now,” Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Murali Gopal said in an interview in New York yesterday.
“Probably the company is not getting the price they were expecting.”
He rates the stock “market perform” and doesn’t own it.
The shares fell as much as $1.50 to $10.70 and traded at $11.48 as of 2.09 p.m. in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Before today they had gained 3.3 percent since August 9, the day before the company announced the hiring of Bear Stearns.
Amy Conti, a spokeswoman for Roseland, New Jersey-based Bisys, didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment. Bisys’s market value is about $1.5 billion, based on yesterday’s closing price and the number of shares outstanding listed on the company’s website.
Bisys has had a Bermuda subsidiary on Church Street since 2002 when it bought the Hemisphere Group of Companies from troubled insurance group Mutual Risk Management for $110 million.
