A shareholder of Morgans Hotel Group Co. appears to be preparing a proxy fight to take over the company after two failed deals.
Rambleside Holdings, which owns about 4% of Morgans, filed a formal request for the company’s list of shareholders, according to Reuters.
The New York City-based company told Morgans’ board last month that it has shareholder support to add Rambleside CEO Greg Cohen; former Morgans CEO Fred Kleisner; ex-KKR executive Nils Brous; and John Tolbert, a consultant who used to work for Blockbuster Video founder Wayne Huizenga, as board members. Morgans replied by saying it wasn’t in the best interest of the board to add members, Reuters said.
The move to take over the upscale hotel group founded by Ian Schrager is the third attempt at a deal in the past few years, after failed attempts involving Yucaipa Cos. billionaire Ronald Burkle and the Los Angeles hotelier Sam Nazarian. The hotel group owns the fashionable Hudson, Delano and Mondrian brands in New York, Miami, London and elsewhere.