Station Casinos OK's founders' $5.5b bid
LAS VEGAS -- Station Casinos Inc.'s board of directors has accepted a revised buyout offer from its founding family and a unit of the real estate firm Colony Capital LLC for about $5.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The revised offer, of $90 a share, came after an initial bid Dec. 4 by Colony and a group that included chief executive Frank J. Fertitta III and president Lorenzo Fertitta, for $82 a share.
Since then, the share price has shot above that mark, closing Friday up 30 cents at $83.30. Some shareholders sued shortly after the first offer was announced, saying the bid was too low.
The board voted Saturday to accept the higher offer, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The board's acceptance was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and the people confirmed the details in the story were true.
The deal includes the assumption of about $3.4 billion in debt, valuing the entire company at about $8.9 billion.
Station's spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
Colony Capital already has casino holdings, including Kerzner International, Resorts Atlantic City, Accor Casinos, the Atlantic City Hilton, and the Las Vegas Hilton.
Colony most recently bid for Phoenix-based Aztar Corp., owner of the Tropicana casino-hotels in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, N.J., but walked away this spring when an affiliate of Columbia Sussex Corp. made a higher offer.
Frank Fertitta Jr. founded Station Casinos with a 100-slot-machine gambling parlor and snack bar in 1976, and his sons took the company public in 1993.
It has grown to 16 properties, including several Las Vegas-area neighborhood casinos, such as the Red Rock Casino Resort Spa, which opened this year in the northeast.
Most include movie theaters and food courts to entice local residents.
It also is part owner in the Green Valley Ranch Station Casino in Henderson and manages Thunder Valley Casino near Sacramento, Calif., on behalf of the United Auburn Indian Community.
