Jeremy Raper, founder of Raper Capital (https://rapercapital.com/), makes his fourth podcast appearance to discuss his foray into activism at Hunter Douglas (HDG.NA). Hunter Douglas's controlling shareholder recently made an offer to take the company private that, to put it bluntly, vastly undervalues the business. Jeremy is pushing back on the deal and the process, and in this interview he explains why he's fighting the current offer and how he thinks the process will play out.

Jeremy's letter to the Hunter Douglas Board: https://rapercapital.com/2021/04/21/open-letter-to-the-independent-committee-of-the-board-of-hunter-douglas-n-v/

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:30 Hunter Douglas Overview
3:05 Why is this a good business?
7:45 Performance in the pandemic and the blockbuster recovery
9:45 Framing the event
12:15 Simplifying the event even further
16:00 Valuation versus peers
22:45 Why is this process worse than a typically conflicted management buyout?
30:45 How the timing of the offer was unfair to minorities
35:45 A callback to the StoneX / Gain deal
39:25 How the process plays out post-acceptance period
45:15 Comping this deal to Collector's Universe
49:40 Discussing the squeeze out
51:30 Praising the poetry of Jeremy's letter
53:35 Jeremy and I hop on our horses about companies and regulators ignoring rules and laws
55:55 Closing thoughts