Brian Taylor’s Pine River Capital Management Initiate Stake in Yongye International

Brian Taylor‘s Pine River Capital Management disclosed, in a new filing, that it currently holds almost 2.6 million shares of Yongye International, Inc (NASDAQ:YONG). The stake is activist by nature and amasses around 5.1% of the company’s outstanding common stock. The fund has not disclosed holding shares of Yongye in its latest 13F.

Earlier in October Glenn Krevlin‘s Glenhill Advisors disclosed boosting its position in Yongye International to 1.94 million shares, equal to 3.8% of the company’s common stock. At the same time, Glenhill sent a letter to the company’s board expressing its disagreement with the decision for Yongye to go private, considering the the $6.6 per share offer proposed by the company, has little value for the shareholders.

Also, in September, it was announced that the board of Yongye is under investigation regarding its intentions to sell the company to Full Alliance International, for $6.69 per share. According to a statement, the deal discounts severely the combined cash and book value of the company, which amount to $5.02 and $10.03 per share respectively. In this way, it might be that Yongye’s board has broken their duties in front of the shareholders through entering into an unfair merger agreement.  The agreement and plan of merger with Full Alliance was signed at the end of September.

Aside from Glenhill, and respectively Pine River, James Dinan’s York Capital Management disclosed 2.3 million shares of Yongye at the end of the second quarter. Matthew Halbower‘s Pentwater Capital Management reported ownership of 1 million shares.

Disclosure: none

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