The Carlyle Group announced its agreement to sell 10 million shares worth more than $300 million of the telecom equipment company CommScope Inc., located in Hickory, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The Washington, D.C.-based company entered into the agreement on Sept. 20, according to the Sept. 22 filing. Credit Suisse Securities LLC will act as the sole underwriter for the offering.
Credit Suisse will have the option for 30 days to purchase up to 1.5 million additional shares from Carlyle. CommScope will not receive any of the proceeds from the offering.
Carlyle expects to sell the stock on Sept. 26, according to the filing.
Carlyle took CommScope private in 2010 for $3.9 billion, the biggest takeover in the telecommunications-equipment industry in at least two years, Bloomberg reported.
CommScope’s sales began to increase after three years under Carlyle, and had its public debut in 2013, opening at $15.14, 14 cents above its initial public offering.
Chairman sells shares
The chairman of Commscope also recently sold shares – nearly $1 million.
Frank M. Drendel, who has served as the chairman of the board since 2011 but been with the company since its founding in 1976, sold 30,000 of his shares at $31.23 a share, totaling his sale to $936,744, according to a filing.
He now owns 2.37 million shares worth more than $70 million.
Hickory-based CommScope is a telecommunications company that focuses on wired and wireless networks. The company was instrumental in the creation of cable TV infrastructure, the first wireless networks, the first data centers, and the first intelligent buildings.
Note: This story is from the North Carolina Business News Wire, a service of UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Media and Journalism
