Cedar Fair postpones shareholder vote on Apollo takeover
3/16/2010Cedar Fair LP postponed the planned shareholder vote Tuesday on the $2.4 billion purchase offer of the Sandusky company by Apollo Global Management.
Cedar Fair announced Monday night that the vote scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday would be delayed until April 8, although the time and location were not announced. The company said in a statement "the meeting was postponed for the purpose of soliciting additional votes and proxies and giving unitholders additional time to consider and vote on the proposed acquisition."
The purchase was opposed by two big shareholders who held close to 30 percent of Cedar Fair's stock. One of those shareholders solicited proxies from individual shareholders seeking to cast those votes. The Apollo purchase could be blocked by 34 percent of Cedar Fair's total shares.
The Apollo offer was announced in December to pay existing shareholders $11.50 a share. Opponents said the price was too low. Apollo would take over Cedar Fair, which operates Cedar Point and amusement parks and water parks across the country, and assume its debts of more than $1 billion. The company would become private, with no public stock.
Cedar Fair, in its statement, encouraged its stockholders to vote and said they could change their votes they may have cast by sending in their mail ballots. For more information about voting, it said stockholders could contact Cedar Fair's proxy solicitor, Mackenzie Partners at 800-322-2885.