Slim's 10M Share Buying Spree In Saks (SKS) Forces Company To Adopt Poison Pill

We've been reporting on Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim's recent aggressive buying of embattled high-end retailer Saks (NYSE: SKS), as the stock falls to multi-year lows, but an amended 13G filing puts the level of his buying into prospective. The filings shows that Slim has boosted his stake in Saks from 15,650,000 shares (10.9%) to 25,250,000 shares (17.8%) in just 4 months (July 7-November 19).

On Wednesday, Saks revealed a shareholders rights plan, commonly referred to as a 'poison pill', which imposes a significant penalty for anyone acquiring 20% or more of the outstanding common stock without the prior approval of the Board of Directors.

With a nearly 18% stake, Carlos Slim is getting close to the 20% threshold and his buying clearly prompted this move by Saks.

With other investors selling shares of Saks like mad, Slim has been buying like mad. But his buying has not been enough to overwhelm the sheer volume of selling. Shares of Saks have fallen 68% in the time between Slim's filing, in which he raised his stake nearly 10 million shares. 287 million shares of Saks have traded hands in that time frame, with 3.3% being comprised of Slim's buying.

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