H.B. Fuller Nears £628 Million AMS Deal as £2.85 Offer Carries 35% Premium

Q: Did activist pressure force H.B. Fuller to abandon its $827 million medtech acquisition?

No. The available reporting does not show that activist pressure forced H.B. Fuller to abandon the Advanced Medical Solutions deal. What is clear is that Ancora Holdings, which owns more than 2% of H.B. Fuller, publicly opposed the roughly $827 million acquisition and argued it would raise leverage above management’s stated comfort zone, add execution risk in unfamiliar medical categories, and overpay relative to H.B. Fuller’s own valuation. That pressure was real and public, and it coincided with a drop in H.B. Fuller’s share price. But the reporting provided stops short of showing an abandonment, let alone proving causation. H.B. Fuller had confirmed it made an all-cash proposal for AMS and was still in discussions and due diligence. Under U.K. takeover rules, it faced a June 18, 2026 deadline to either make a firm offer or walk away. The materials here do not report a final withdrawal announcement or say that Ancora’s campaign was the decisive reason if the deal did not proceed. So the evidence supports a narrower answer: Ancora applied significant pressure and tried to derail the transaction, but there is no confirmed basis in the provided information to say that pressure forced H.B. Fuller to abandon the acquisition.

2 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Jun 25

H.B. Fuller is close to buying Advanced Medical Solutions in a deal valuing the UK tissue-healing products maker’s equity at £628 million, with an announcement possible as soon as Thursday.
The proposed offer is £2.85 a share, according to people familiar with the matter, giving AMS shareholders a 35% premium to the stock’s close in May before takeover talks emerged.
The acquisition would deepen H.B. Fuller’s push into healthcare, extending the US adhesives manufacturer beyond its core industrial business.
AMS would cost about $827 million at the reported terms, underscoring the scale of H.B. Fuller’s planned expansion into medical technology.