Deals
Airgas to Buy Back Stock After Thwarting Air Products
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Airgas Inc. said it will repurchase as much as $300 million of its outstanding shares after a Delaware judge upheld the company’s anti-takeover defense, ending a yearlong battle with Air Products & Chemicals Inc.
The buyback reflects Airgas’s confidence in the future, Chief Executive Officer Peter McCausland said today in a statement. Air Products dropped its $5.9 billion hostile bid for the packaged-gas supplier yesterday after Chancery Court Judge William B. Chandler III rejected a claim that Airgas’s poison-pill defense was flawed because it gave directors too much power to deflect offers for the company.