Competing Bid Made For Tribune Publishing

A Maryland hotel executive has expressed an interest in buying Tribune Publishing Co. for a higher amount than Alden Global Capital's bid, The L-A Business Journal reports.

Choice Hotels Chairman Stewart Bainum Jr. said he'll bid $650 million, or $18.50 per share, to buy the assets of the Chicago-based company (Nasdaq: TPCO); higher than the $630M Februaery offer, or $17.25 per share, made by Alden, which owns 32% of Tribune Publishing.

Tribune officials said they'll consider Bainum's offer, but they'll settle for Alden's bid, they told shareholders in a Tuesday filing the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Stewart Bainum Jr.

Originally, Alden's offer to buy the remainder of Tribune Publishing, which owns The Baltimore Sun, carved out the Sun from the deal because Bainum was interested in buying the Baltimore paper. But that part of the deal fell through, and now it appears that Bainum is interested in the whole Tribune Publishing operation.

Bainum wrote a March 16 letter to the Tribune Publishing board that "indicated that Bainum’s pursuit and investigation of The Sun had recently led him to the conclusion that (Tribune Publishing) could be purchased for a price greater than the price set forth (by the Alden bid), and that Bainum believed there would be significant interest among financing sources in joining his effort. The March 16 letter also alluded to a future for the company and its newspapers potentially under a not-for-profit model," according to Tribune Publishing's SEC filing.

Despite Bainum's higher bid, Tribune Publishing board members said they're happy with Alden's bid. "Our board recommends that you vote “FOR” the merger proposal, “FOR” the merger compensation proposal and “FOR” the adjournment proposal," they wrote to shareholders, but they added that they granted "a waiver of certain restrictions ... so that Mr. Bainum would be able to discuss his offer with specified potential debt and equity financing sources in order to raise the remaining required financing for his offer."