Hoya to launch Pentax tender offer around 3 July

Japanese high-tech glassmaker Hoya Corp. today said that it would launch its $854- million tender offer for Pentax Corp. around 3 July, delayed from early June as originally scheduled.

Hoya is planning to acquire Pentax, which makes cameras and medical equipment, to facilitate its entry in to lucrative markets like single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras and medical.

Hoya said it plans to launch the tender offer about three working days after Pentax hands in its financial statement to the government, which Pentax plans to do on 28 June, a day after its shareholders' meeting.

Hoya has cut by half the minimum number of Pentax shares it needs to buy for the tender offer to go through to 67.74 million shares, or 50 per cent of its total shares including potential shares that can be converted from convertible bonds.