Shares of Unisys Corp. UIS, -4.01% ran up 11.4% in premarket trading Thursday, after the information technology company announced a deal to sell its U.S. Federal business to Science Applications International Corp. SAIC, +0.40% for $1.2 billion. SAIC shares were still inactive ahead of the open.
Unisys said it plans to use the proceeds to “significantly” improve its balance sheet by paying down debt and reducing pension obligations. Unisys said the transaction multiple of 13-times adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) represents a “significant premium” to Unisys’ overall multiple. Separately, Unisys said it has adopted a tax asset protection plan. As part of the plan, the company declared a dividend of one preferred share purchase right for each common share outstanding, payable to shareholders as of Feb. 15. The stock has gained 3.4% over the past three months through Wednesday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.47% has hiked up 8.4%.