Gardner Denver Weighs Sale After Shares Soar on Report

Gardner Denver Inc. (GDI) said it’s studying options including a sale or a merger, following the stock’s biggest one-day gain since 1994 after a report that the evaluation was under way.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is acting as adviser for the review, Gardner Denver said yesterday in a statement. No decision has been made, and it’s possible no transaction will occur, according to the company, which is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

TPG Capital, Onex Corp. (OCX), KKR & Co., Blackstone Group LP (BX) and Bain Capital LLC are among the private-equity firms considering offers, Reuters reported earlier yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter whom it didn’t identify. TPG and Onex may bid together on a sale that may exceed $3 billion, the news service said.

Gardner Denver jumped 21 percent to $66 at the close in New York. That advance was the most since its spinoff from Cooper Industries Plc (CBE) in 1994 and gave the company a market value of $3.23 billion, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.

Trading was halted by a so-called circuit breaker to damp volatility at about 3:11 p.m. New York time and resumed six minutes later.

Shareholder ValueAct Holdings LP said in July that a takeover would help Gardner Denver reap the most value for investors after CEO Barry Pennypacker’s surprise resignation. Pennypacker’s exit sent the shares tumbling 8.6 percent, extending a slide since the stock’s $91.50 record close in July 2011.

“Gardner Denver does not intend to discuss or disclose developments with respect to this process until the board has approved a definitive course of action,” the company said in the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Dufner in Dallas at edufner@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Ed Dufner at edufner@bloomberg.net