Lear receives offer from Icahn affiliate

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lear Corp. said Monday that an affiliate group of shareholder activist Carl Icahn has made an offer to buy the company in a deal valued at $2.4 billion.

American Real Estate Partners LP, which is headed by Icahn, offered $36 a share in cash for Lear.

Shares of Lear (up $4.22 to $38.89, Charts), a global supplier of automotive interior systems, soared 12 percent in midday trading in New York.

"We've been saying that the company is worth somewhere in the mid-$40s (per share), so it looks to be a good deal for him and not such a great deal for shareholders," Morningstar equity analyst John Novak told Reuters.

Icahn's offer represents a 3.8 percent premium to Lear shares' closing price of $34.67 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

The proposed takeover calls for Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Rossiter and the rest of the company's senior management to stay with the company.

Lear has been hit in recent years amid troubles at its major customers -- the big Detroit automakers General Motors (Charts), Ford Motor (Charts) and the Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler AG (Charts).

Icahn disclosed in October that he had upped his stake in the company to 16 percent of its shares outstanding, according to Reuters. Based on Friday's close, Lear shares have run up about 60 percent since then.

-- from staff and wire reports

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