Vocal shareholder advocate Voce Capital demands some major overhauls at New York medtech company ConMed amid a tough quarter and an ever-dimming outlook for the year.
Vocal Voce Capital Management issued a long and critical letter against New York medical device maker ConMed (NSDQ:CNMD), demanding that the company take steps toward a strategic exit and end “a culture of nepotism, patronage and dystopian corporate governance.”
So-called ‘activist investment firm’ Voce Capital didn’t mince words in its illustration of ConMed, which has posted a few weak quarters, with falling sales and a lowered outlook for 2013. Voce, which owns about 1% interest in ConMed, described the company as one run and ruined by the Corasanti family.
ConMed CFO Robert Shallish issued a brief response to the Voce’s diatribe, saying that the company plans to go through the press release in time.
“We will be responding to the Voce Capital press announcement with a thoughtful response in due course,” Shallish said in an email sent to MassDevice.com today. “It is interesting to note that we still have not received the letter that they say they have delivered to us.”
“We believe that the Voce press release contains numerous inaccuracies, is one sided and fails to recognize CONMED’s significant returns to our shareholders in the form of superior free cash flow, increasing earnings over the last several years, cash dividends and share buy-backs,” Shallish added.
Read More: http://www.massdevice.com/news/conmed-battles-activist-investor-amid-harsh-quarter-lowered-forecast
