Tribune Publishing Sets May 21 Shareholder Vote

Tribune Publishing set a May 21 date for shareholders to vote on its deal to sell the Chicago-based newspaper chain to hedge fund Alden Global Capital for $633 million.

The Chicago Tribune reports Alden, Tribune Publishing’s largest shareholder with a 31.6% stake, reached an agreement in February to buy the rest of the company at $17.25 per share and take it private. The proposed merger will require approval from two-thirds of Tribune Publishing’s other shareholders.

On Monday, Tribune Publishing said it ended discussions with a group headed by Maryland hotel executive Stewart Bainum after it was notified that Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss had pulled out of a fully financed nonbinding offer of $680 million for the company. A special committee of the Tribune Publishing board determined that the proposed $18.50 per share bid by the Bainum-Wyss entity, known as Newslight, no longer could be reasonably expected to lead to a “superior proposal” to Alden’s offer.

The Tribune Publishing board members and executive officers intend to vote all of their shares in favor of the Alden merger, with the exception of CEO Terry Jimenez, who said he plans to vote against the proposal, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Tuesday.

Shareholders of record as of April 15 will get one vote for each share. Tribune Publishing will report the results within four days of the shareholder meeting, according to the SEC filing

The Alden deal’s success hinges on securing the votes of California biotech billionaire and Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns 23.7% of Tribune Publishing’s 36.9 million outstanding shares. Soon-Shiong, who built his initial stake in Tribune Publishing at $15 per share in 2016, owns about 8.7 million shares of the company.

If approved, Tribune Publishing said it expects the merger to be completed by the end of June.