Lakeview urges Quipt board to initiate ‘legitimate’ review of strategic options

Lakeview Opportunity Fund, a nearly 5% owner, and top 5 shareholder of Quipt Home Medical (QIPT), expressed its belief that the company’s Board of Directors has undermined the best interests of shareholders by failing to engage in good faith with a credible bidder as part of a transparent and viable strategic review. Lakeview said, “Rather than open a constructive dialogue with a real bidder and start exploring all avenues to maximize value, the Board has put shareholder value at risk and started to waste Quipt’s limited resources on apparent entrenchment efforts, including a clearly frivolous lawsuit. We suspect shareholders are fed up with the Board due to its mishandling of this situation and prior decision to issue itself unjustifiable equity-based compensation. We contend the Board needs to finally consider the public facts from the standpoint of independent shareholders: Quipt’s leadership has overseen enormous value destruction over the past several years.Quipt’s leadership granted itself restricted stock and options amounting to ~7% of the Company’s equity in March 2025 – this followed the Board receiving multiple acquisition proposals from Forager Capital Management. The timing of the grants could lead investors to infer that the Board is more focused on its own interests rather than shareholders’ interests. Quipt’s directors appear to lack independence based on recent actions, including resorting to pointless litigation against a major shareholder and credible bidder for the Company. A publicly disclosed bidder has submitted a proposal that represents a significant premium relative to the unaffected price and the current share price, does not include a financing contingency, does not include requirements for additional diligence and conveys an openness to raising the firm’s bid. The Company contends that the $3.10 per share offer is “self-serving,” and cited recent positive developments at the Company level, however none of these actions have resulted in any tangible returns for shareholders. The only recent news that has driven any positive share price action is when the $3.10 per share bid was publicly announced. Quipt’s standalone strategy has failed to generate positive returns and has left shareholders stuck in purgatory, with a subscale Company saddled with significant public company costs, limited institutional investor interest, excluded from any major indices and no clear path towards a turnaround. Quipt has told the market that $3.10 per share significantly undervalues the Company. We agree, and believe a full and transparent strategic review process, focused on a sale, will result in a transaction at a meaningful premium to that price. We urge the Company to do so as soon as possible, and believe it represents by far the best combination of risk and reward for all shareholders. If the Board wants to avoid more shareholder criticism and start rebuilding some semblance of trust with the market, it should immediately announce a credible and transparent review supported by new and truly independent advisors. Lastly, we urge the Board not to infer certain shareholders’ muted reactions to recent events as approval of the directors’ conduct. In our view, every single member of the Board will be removed and replaced at the next annual meeting if the status quo persists.”