This just in from the CAPS market movers chart: One of the hottest stocks of the trading day is ultra-cold DHB Industries -- now renamed Point Blank Solutions (OTC BB: PBSO.PK).
The catalyst for the body-armor manufacturer's 17% surge in price: a press release issued this morning, in which management affirms that it will "explore all strategic alternatives to enhance stockholder value, including a possible sale of the Company." What's more, these aren't just empty words. Point Blank has hired Wachovia (NYSE: WB) to assist it in orchestrating a sale. Even more promising, management has penciled in a target sales price.
How much d'you want for that?
Point Blank says it has been in talks with "many" of its stockholders in recent days. One investor in particular, hedge fund Steel Partners II, L.L.P., put a proposal on the table "to seek to purchase the Company for 'no less than $5.50 per share in cash.'" Cryptically, Point Blank says that after the meeting closed, "the Company and Steel entered into a confidentiality agreement."
So mum's the word on future discussions. But you have to imagine that the prospect of an identified buyer being ready, willing, and able to lay out $5.50 a share looks mighty attractive to shareholders whose holdings, as of this writing, currently fetch a little less than $4.50 a stub. And now that everyone knows that Point Blank is in play, you've got to wonder whether other bids will be forthcoming.
BAE Systems would appear to be the most likely industrial acquirer, having already scooped up Point Blank rival Armor Holdings. But other possibilities include Mine Safety (NYSE: MSA), which moved into the body-armor space back in 2005. And either Ceradyne (Nasdaq: CRDN) or Honeywell (NYSE: HON) could derive efficiencies from vertically integrating the maker of Interceptor vests into which their ceramic armor inserts are placed. And really, any of the big-name defense contractors: General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) or Textron (NYSE: TXT) for example. Seems to me that body armor falls right within their bailiwick.
So many potential bidders, so small a stock price. The surprise here is not so much that Point Blank's up 17% -- the surprise is that its share price still sits so far short of $5.50.
