Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel – Shares of Boca Raton-based Nabi Biopharmaceuticals rose nearly 5 percent Wednesday after hedge fund Third Point LLC urged the biotech firm to allow Bank of America Corp. to explore a possible sale of all or part of the company.
Nabi’s stock closed at $5.15, up 24 cents, on a volume of 1.2 million shares — about twice the normal daily average.
Third Point, which is the largest Nabi shareholder with 9.5 percent of the outstanding shares, said the vaccine and drug maker’s decision in June to hire Bank of America as a consultant was a ploy to temporarily appease shareholders upset about poor performance.
Bank of America “has so far been hamstrung by a nebulous mandate” and “needs to be empowered to evaluate strategic alternatives,” the hedge fund’s executive director, Daniel Loeb, wrote in a letter to Nabi’s board and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
