STAAR Surgical Responds as Shareholder Broadwood Partners Announces Intent to Vote Against Proposed Deal With Alcon

NEW YORK.—Broadwood Partners, a key shareholder in STAAR Surgical (NASDAQ: STAA) with reported ownership of 27.3 percent of common shares outstanding, announced earlier this week that it intends to vote against Alcon's (SIX/NYSE: ALC) proposed acquisition of STAAR, the developer of phakic intraocular lenses with the EVO family of Implantable Collamer Lenses (EVO ICL) for vision correction. The deal was announced in early August and was estimated to have a total equity value of approximately $1.5 billion. In an announcement this week, Broadwood shared several concerns regarding the proposed deal, stating among them that the company “believes the transaction suffers from multiple process and valuation deficiencies.”