TOKYO, February 15, 2010—Canon Inc. ("Canon"; President and COO: Tsuneji Uchida; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan) and OPTOPOL Technology S.A. ("OPTOPOL"; President: Adam Bogdani; Headquarters: Zawiercie, Poland) reached an agreement in December last year by which Canon would acquire OPTOPOL's shares through a tender offer, which commenced on January 13, 2010.
Canon today announced that a total of 12,691,230 shares, including those of founding family members, representing 89.35% (ratio of voting rights) of the outstanding shares of OPTOPOL, had been validly tendered pursuant to the tender offer as of the expiration of the offering period on February 11 and, as such, OPTOPOL will be made a consolidated subsidiary of Canon on February 19, 2010 (tentative). OPTOPOL's founder will retain 10% of the shares for the foreseeable future.
Following the acquisition by Canon of OPTOPOL's shares, as Canon and OPTOPOL's founder own more than 90% of the outstanding shares, Canon, with the cooperation of the founder, intends to "squeeze out" the remaining 0.65% of minority shareholders and have OPTOPOL's shares delisted.
Through this TOB, Canon will be able to enter into the field of Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), an area expected to undergo significant growth; greatly strengthen its ophthalmic diagnostic equipment product lineup; and offer a greatly enhanced product portfolio spanning a wide range of ophthalmic diagnostic systems. Additionally, Canon aims to achieve the world's No. 1 position within the overall ophthalmic diagnostic equipment segment through joint product-development efforts by both companies that would lead to the creation of groundbreaking new ophthalmic diagnostic tools.
