Minnesota investment board withholds support of Medtronic-Covidien deal

Critics said the deal would allow Medtronic to avoid taxes while providing preferential tax breaks to executives.
http://www.startribune.com/business/287351111.html
The promise of 1,000 new Minnesota jobs was not enough to persuade the state’s investment board to support a $48 billion corporate transaction that will move Medtronic Inc.’s legal headquarters overseas.

A four-member subcommittee of the State Board of Investment (SBI) decided Friday morning not to vote when shareholders are asked Tuesday to approve Medtronic’s acquisition of Irish health care supplier Covidien PLC.

Critics on the state investment board said they were concerned that the deal, which is widely expected to be approved by shareholders, will help the Fridley-based medical-device company avoid taxes while providing “preferential” tax perks to executives.

“The SBI voting precedents are, as a matter of public policy, to vote against both offshore tax avoidance transactions and golden parachutes like this one,” Deputy Attorney General Christie Eller said at the meeting in St. Paul on Friday. “The attorney general’s office supports the precedents of the SBI as appropriate principles consistent with our duty as fiduciaries. The inversion is a tax-avoidance transaction.”

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