PROVIDENCE – Shares of Textron Inc. (NYSE:TXT) soared on Thursday after a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that a group of investors in the United Arab Emirates are planning to buy the company for $21 a share.
The Providence-based conglomerate’s stock closed at $13.56 per share, up 48.9 percent from Wednesday’s closing price of $9.11, in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. At one point in the day, Textron shares were up 58 percent, the company’s biggest intraday gain since July 1980, Bloomberg News reported.
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Al-Watan, a newspaper in Kuwait, reported that the investors want to buy Textron for its civil aerospace operations, and plan to sell off its defense portfolio to an unnamed American firm that is also involved in the negotiations. The paper did not identify its sources.
Textron would be valued at $5.1 billion if its 242.9 million outstanding shares were purchased for $21 each.
Spokesmen for Textron declined to comment on the rumors, as did representatives of Boeing and United Technologies, two potential buyers of Textron’s defense units.
Citigroup Inc. analyst Jeffrey Sprague said a breakup “would likely solve one of the key problems in realizing Textron’s full value, namely that Textron has many pieces which would fit well with other companies, but all of Textron does not fit well with any one company,” Bloomberg reported.
The value of Textron shares has surged in recent days amid broad market speculation about a potential takeover. The company’s stock has fallen hard since last May, when it closed at a 52-week high of $65.52, according to Bloomberg.
The company is already in the process of winding down its financial division, which is based in Providence.
Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) is a $14.2 billion company employing 42,000 people in 28 countries. Its brands include Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft Co., Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. Additional information is available at www.textron.com.
