Altai Capital Management is preparing for a potential boardroom battle at OraSure Technologies after increasing its stake in the diagnostics company from 3% at the end of June to 5% in recent weeks, according to a report by Reuters.
The report cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter as revealing that the New York-based hedge fund, founded by Rishi Bajaj in 2009, is expected to nominate two directors – including Bajaj – at OraSure’s 2025 annual meeting, where two board seats will be up for re-election. The move comes amid mounting shareholder frustration over the company’s performance and strategy. OraSure shares have fallen 23% over the past year, though they have recently rebounded to $3.25, giving the firm a market value of $237m.
Altai’s push follows news that OraSure rejected a buyout proposal from healthcare entrepreneur Ron Zwanziger earlier this year, an offer valued at between $3.50 and $4 per share. While Zwanziger and Altai are not working together, the proxy contest represents an alternative means of forcing management to respond to investor concerns.
Bajaj has a track record of activist involvement, having joined the board of ContextLogic in 2023 before becoming CEO a year later. His restructuring efforts at the company, parent of Wish.com, have helped double its share price since.
Other shareholders, including Carlo Cannell’s Cannell Capital, have also pressed for change at OraSure, calling for new directors to refresh the board. While OraSure has sought to diversify through acquisitions such as Sherlock Biosciences, investors argue that execution has lagged competitors in the highly fragmented point-of-care diagnostics market dominated by larger players including Roche, Danaher, Siemens and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
