STAAR Surgical adjourned until Nov. 6 the shareholder vote for its planned sale to Alcon during a virtual special meeting of shareholders on Oct. 23.

Alcon made public on Aug. 5 its plans to purchase all outstanding shares of STAAR common stock for $28 per share in cash, a 51 percent premium to the closing price of $18.49 on Aug. 4.

The proposal calls for STAAR to survive as a direct, wholly owned subsidiary of Alcon.

Some of STAAR’s largest shareholders subsequently opposed the deal publicly and urged other shareholders to do the same. Those opposed include New York-based Broadwood Partners, with 27.5 percent of outstanding shares, and Hong Kong-based Yunqi Capital, with 5.1 percent of outstanding shares.

STAAR, of Lake Forest, California, needs more than 50 percent of shareholders to vote in favor of the deal.

Broadwood and Yunqi both issued press releases in the days leading up to the meeting urging STAAR to resist the temptation to delay it, as opposition grew louder. Broadwood also said it intended to call a subsequent special meeting of shareholders to remove several STAAR board members; it did not name those board members.

What is STAAR Worth?

At issue is the price of Alcon’s offer and whether it undervalues the future strength of STAAR.

Broadwood and Yunqi contend that $28 is too low; Alcon had offered $55 per share and a $7 contingent value right in October 2024 in a previous attempt to purchase STAAR.

Alcon withdrew that offer on Jan. 3, 2025, according to STAAR’s prospectus on the latest offer. STAAR said Alcon did so after expressing concerns over the macroeconomic climate in China and projected sales levels of STAAR’s Implantable Collamer Lens (ICL), as well as inventory levels held by Chinese distributors and STAAR’s growth rate.

In STAAR’s recent statements, it said the $28 price reflected the challenges the company faces going forward as a single product company heavily reliant on China, its largest market, for selling its Evo phakic ICL. Other factors it cited included risks from tariffs and its historical inability to penetrate the refractive market beyond high myopia patients.

The company said it was still a strong believer in the Evo technology and stood behind its plan for STAAR to grow net sales by 10 percent annually from 2026 through 2030, but that was well below STAAR’s historical growth rate of 20 percent and was subject to significant risks and headwinds.

Yunqi countered that STAAR was ignoring the temporary nature of those headwinds, particularly in China. STAAR’s revenue decline was not driven by structural weakness, but by short-term distributor inventory adjustments in China. Specifically, Yunqi noted that STAAR’s revenue owing to its China operations fell 82, 99, and 92 percent year-over-year in Q4-2024, Q1-2025, and Q2-2025, respectively, even as China’s GDP in the same periods grew 5.4, 5.4, and 5.2 percent. Yunqi said this indicated that the revenue contraction was driven by unique, transitory issues affecting the company specifically rather than enduring macroeconomic weakness in China.

Market Scope covers this story in more detail in the October 2025 issue of Ophthalmic Market Perspectives, published Oct. 24.

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