U.S. industrial conglomerate Timken Co reiterated that it will not split its steel and bearings businesses despite pressure from its top shareholder, and said the investor's analysis of benefits from a break-up had serious flaws. Activist fund Relational Investors LLC and CalSTRS, a large public pension fund, jointly reported a 6.15 percent stake in Timken in November and said Timken should split into two publicly traded companies.As of March 21, the investors own a combined 7.28 percent of the company.Timken said it has reviewed a separation of the company along with its external advisers, and concluded that "maintaining (Timken) in its current integrated state is in the best interests of shareholders at this time."The investors had said Timken would be worth $68.36 per share on a sum-of-the-parts basis upon separation, according to a regulatory filing. Timken shares closed at $56.58 on Thursday.
The Timken Company (Timken) develops, manufactures, markets and sells products for friction management and mechanical power transmission, alloy steels and steel components. Shares of TKR fell by 0.05% or $-0.03/share to $56.55. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $32.59 and as high as $58.50. On average, 787726 shares of TKR exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 15715.
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