Posts Tagged ‘mid’
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Attorneys for Magna Entertainment have struck a deal in U.S. bankruptcy court with unsecured creditors that will allow Frank Stronach to maintain control of Santa Anita Park, Gulfstream Park and Golden Gate Fields and the account wagering company Xpressbet.com and the Amtote totalizator company, Reuters and Bloomberg have reported.
The creditors will receive nearly $100 million, according to the reports, while Magna sells off the Maryland Jockey Club tracks (Pimlico and Maryland) and Thistledown in Ohio. MI Developments, which, like Magna Entertainment, is controlled by Stronach, will take over ownership of the aforementioned assets. The unsecured creditors claimed in a lawsuit they were owed as much as $260 million from the total MEC debt of nearly $1 billion. Magna officials hope to have a reorganization plan in place by next month to get the company out of bankruptcy.
Here is the story from Reuters.
Here is the Bloomberg story.
After you’ve read the stories,feel free to return to the Paulick Report and comment on this latest development regarding Stronach and his affiliated companies. — Ray Paulick
Tags: Frank Stronach, golden gate fields, gulfstream park, laurel park, Magna, Magna Entertainment, Maryland Jockey Club, mec, mi developments, mid, pimlico, preakness, santa anita park, xpressbet.com
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
Sunday, August 23rd, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Saying he is fed up with what he called the “most unprofessional process†he has ever seen, Internet entrepreneur and Thoroughbred owner Halsey Minor told the Paulick Report he has withdrawn from the bidding for the bankrupt Magna Entertainment (MEC) racetracks.“Magna Entertainment was to bankruptcy when dead what Magna Entertainment was to corporate responsibility and governance when alive,†he said. Minor said he “finally threw in the towel when they refused to allow me to speak and partner with one of America’s most profitable and respected gaming companies for the purpose of getting the value of my offer higher. … The shifting assortment of people ‘running’ the bankruptcy denied my right without ever feeling the need to even articulate a reason.â€
Minor’s decision came the same week U.S. bankruptcy court Judge Mary Walrath approved a request by the committee of unsecured creditors to include Magna chairman Frank Stronach and certain directors of the MEC in a lawsuit against Magna’s parent company, MI Developments, for allegedly preventing MEC from selling off some of its assets to avoid bankruptcy. The company filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy March 5.
The suit, filed July 21, said in its preliminary statement that “the MEC bankruptcy did not need to happen†if the company had sold some of its assets and raised equity. “Rather,†the suit states, “the MID Defendant, MID members of MEC’s Board of Directors, MEC management and Tom Hodgson worked together to make sure that asset sales were limited and that key properties –properties that MEC told the world would be sold to the highest bidder–were in fact set aside for MID and its controlling shareholder, Frank Stronach. MID, MEC management, Stronach, and those working with them stubbornly refused to sell MEC’s marketable assets, even after repeatedly telling the investing public in SEC filings and on investor conference calls that they would; and even after they knew that their refusal to act could violate their fiduciary duties. Instead of marketing MEC’s assets in good faith, Stronach and MID (which Stronach controls), larded MEC with purported loans (secured no less) to keep the failing MEC temporarily afloat, thereby ensuring that the MID Defendant would leapfrog ahead of the pre-existing unsecured debt (including $225 millon in unsecured bonds issued in 2002 and 2003) in an effort to protect MID’s equity ownership over MEC’s assets.â€
Stronach, the suit alleges, “used his control of MID to set up a ‘heads I win, tails you lose’ financing model.†If MEC’s performance improved, MID and its shareholders stood to profit, the suit says. If MEC were forced into bankruptcy, MID would use credit bids to retain the most coveted racetrack assets.
Click here for a copy of the unsecured creditors lawsuit, which outlines the history of Magna Entertainment and comments on much of the corporate, financial and governance intrigue behind the failed company.
In a proposal made last fall, Minor offered to buy MID’s bridge loans to Magna. He made a similar offer in April after Magna filed for bankruptcy. Minor said he was partnering on the proposal with California supermarket mogul Ron Burkle
, who is listed by Forbes magazine as the 105th wealthiest American, with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Burkle is a major political donor, almost exclusively to Democrats, though he has also contributed to California’s Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was dubbed the “Billionaire Party Boy†by the New York Post, whose Page Six author Jared Paul Stern allegedly attempted to extort $220,000 from Burkle to stop negative stories about him from appearing in the tabloid paper.
“He is one of the five most influential people in Los Angeles,†Minor said of Burkle. “He’s an extraordinary investor with a sterling reputation, and he’s plugged in to the Hollywood crowd, something racing could use.
“After we submitted our offer I sent an email to MID asking if we could talk with this major casino company,†Minor continued. “I don’t want to name them, but they are extremely profitable and were interested.†Minor said he got an answer saying the offer would not be presented to the MID board because of the new issue involving a casino company.
“It’s so irrational,†Minor said. “They don’t even have a reason. They’re violating their duty, which is to get the maximum amount of money. When these guys are holding me back from doing that, when I have the strongest offer, it’s unconscionable. I’ve pursued this for a long time and spent a lot of money, but there is a limit as to how far someone will go to try and buy a business.â€
Minor also accused Magna’s interim chief executive officer, Greg Rayburn (who served as chief restructuring officer for WorldCom during what then was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history), of having a duel role as an adviser to MI Developments, giving him an “utter and complete conflict of interest.â€
Because numbers at Magna tracks are “falling off the cliff,†Minor said, the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) has “absolutely nosedived.†He said Santa Anita’s EBITDA will have gone from $22 million to $8 million next year. As a result, he said, the track properties have dramatically fallen in value. “There are sub-$100-million bids for Santa Anita,†Minor said. Stronach paid $126 million for the Arcadia, Calif., track in 1998.
“The bids (for some Magna tracks) will be so bad that MID is going to have to credit bid, use their $400 million in debt to go in and buy back the assets, so the track will come back into the same parent company that bankrupted them in the first place,†he said. “That will trigger (investment fund) Greenlight and others to have a conniption because MID will not just lend the money but own the assets outright. There are bidders, but there’s no one to say ‘I will pay more.’
“I told (MID chief executive) Dennis Mills last year Magna was going bankrupt, and he said I was completely wrong, didn’t know what I was talking about, was a bomb thrower. I told Frank (Stronach) that if he went forward with the 363 process (stalking horse bid) and the unsecured creditors got nothing, they would sue him corporately and personally. I’ve told him the money will be tied up in escrow as litigation drags on for years, and said I believe from the work I’ve done that he will lose. The banks will get paid, the unsecureds will get paid, and what’s left will come to him after two years.
“All I’ve asked is, ‘Can I put something together with each of the parties that prevents going down the path of two years of litigation?’ But the basic answer is ‘no.’
“I said a year ago I wanted to prevent an ugly, destructive bankruptcy. We are about to see one hell of a an ugly and destructive bankruptcy. Who knows where these assets will end up? We won’t even know when they are sold who the beneficiary is.
“There will be more lawsuits coming. Frank is not going to let Gulfstream Park be sold for $20 million. So he will buy it back into MID, then what do you think is going to happen? It’s just starting, and it’s like the company itself: it just gets worse and worse and worse.â€
Minor said he is stunned that Stronach is considered a front-runner to acquire the German automobile company Opel from General Motors.
“How any sovereign nation can look at money losing Magna International, and chaotic, governance plagued MI Development, and bankrupt Magna Entertainment and decide that Frank Stronach should come near their industrial base absolutely defies all laws of common sense and business,†he said. “The title for his foray into the U.S. Thoroughbred business has now been officially written: Veni, Vidi, Deletum. ‘I Came. I Saw. I Destroyed.’â€
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
Savvy businesses recognize value. Advertise in the Paulick Report.
Support the Paulick Report. Make a donation today.
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Tags: dennis mills, Frank Stronach, general motors, greenlight financial, gulfstream park, Halsey Minor, Magna, magna bankruptcy, Magna Entertainment, magna international, mary walrath, mec, mec bankruptcy, mid, mid developments, opel, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, ron burkle, stronach, tom hodgson, veni vidi deletum
Posted in Halsey Minor, Magna Entertainment | 28 Comments »
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Halsey Minor, the Internet entrepreneur and Thoroughbred owner and breeder who made a failed bid to buy Hialeah Park from John Brunetti last year, is poised to make an offer to reorganize bankrupt Magna Entertainment (MEC) and take control of the company from founder Frank Stronach, the Paulick Report has learned.
The anticipated offer comes at a time when opposition to MEC’s plans to auction some of its assets is mounting from both creditors and shareholders in MI Developments, MEC’s parent company. According to a published report, the creditors have focused on the control that Eclipse Award-winning owner and breeder Stronach wields over not just MEC, but MI Developments. MI Developments, in addition to being the largest shareholder in MEC, is a major creditor that in the bankruptcy filing made a stalking horse bid for some of MEC’s assets. The court-appointed committee of creditors charged the proceedings are “overrun with serious conflicts of interest.”
Minor’s offer, the Paulick Report has learned, will pay off in full the debt owed to MI Developments by MEC (about $175 million), assume the debt on several bank notes while asking for an extension of time for repayment, and provide an option to the holders of $225 million in convertible bonds, either paying them roughly 25 cents on the dollar up front or offering 100% of the value as a new bond maturing in three years. Minor would take over management of the newly reorganized company upon acceptance of the deal by the creditors committee and the bankruptcy court.
This is not the first time Minor has made a run at MEC. Last October, the founder of the Internet company CNET proposed to the MI Developments board of directors that he would buy the outstanding loans from MID to MEC. That offer was not accepted, but now that the company has entered chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings it has far less wiggle room.
“The goal would be to take control of the Magna tracks away from MI Developments and begin the process of rebuilding much of what has been harmed over the previous five years," Minor said in October. "Magna Entertainment, as a company, clearly has little chance of survival. The idea is to prevent a bankruptcy which would be disastrous for the industry and to begin to rebuild the company. The goal, first and foremost, is to stop the uncontrolled bankruptcy, which is almost inevitable. You can’t lose $120 million a year in this environment and continue.
“Frank Stronach only owns 2% of MI Development but has been using that company to prop up Magna Entertainment, which has basically been a bankrupt company for three years. It only exists because MI Developments continues to put money into a company whose losses are in excess of $100 million a year.
Magna filed bankruptcy on March 5. Click here for the history of the company and here for a list of its major creditors.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
Support the Paulick Report. Click here to make a donation today.
Sign up for our Email flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Tags: Frank Stronach, Halsey Minor, magna bankrupt, magna bankruptcy, Magna Entertainment, magna entertainment bankruptcy, mec, mi developments, mid, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, stronach bankruptcy
Posted in Halsey Minor, Magna Entertainment | 28 Comments »
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
The recent press release announcing Magna Developments (MIM) was scrapping its reorganization plan to help debt-ridden racetrack company Magna Entertainment (MEC) has prompted one of Magna Developments’ largest institutional investors to warn the real estate entity’s board of directors that it was prepared to “vigorously protect” its rights as a shareholder if the board “does not fulfill its fiduciary duties in the weeks ahead.”
Farallon Capital Management, which in October called Magna Entertainment a “financial sinkhole,” filed a letter with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday that called for the Magna Developments board to foreclose on loans made to the racetrack company if they are not repaid on the accelerated March 20 due date. Half of Magna Entertainment’s $600 million in debt is owed to Magna Developments, and the racetrack company has lost $500 million over the last five years, according to the Farallon letter. Farallon owns 5.5% of the company’s Class A shares. Click here for the Farallon letter to the Magna Developments board.
“Given the (MIM) board’s history of failing to defend MIM’s contractual rights against MEC, we are greatly troubled by the press release’s silence on whether MIM will enforce MEC’s debt obligations when they come due,” the letter states. “Bankruptcy would allow MIM to realize at least some value on its loans to MEC.”
The Farallon letter calls it “folly” that current market conditions justify providing additional financing to Magna Entertainment. “There is no realistic prospect that MEC will ever be financially viable,” it states. “That the (MIM) board has authorized over $300 million in loans in a failed attempt to prop up this equity only highlights the foolishness of the two companies entanglement. There is no possible justification for MIM to deepen that entanglement by lending more money to, or accepting equity in, MEC.”
Frank Stronach is chairman of both Magna Developments and Magna Entertainment.
“If MEC fails to repay the loans as scheduled, MIM should not waste a single day waiting to exercise its rights as a creditor,” the letter states. “Any other course of action would be a dereliction by the (MIM) board of its fiduciary duties. Farallon is watching the board closely. We are prepared to vigorously protect our rights as a shareholder if the board does not fulfill its fiduciary duties in the weeks ahead.”
The Farallon letter comes two weeks after another unhappy institutional shareholder, Greenlight Capital, wrote to the Magna Developments board saying they will be held responsible for any failure to live up to their fiduciary duties. Click here for that letter.
More bad news for Magna: just last week, Jerry Campbell, a former CEO of Magna Entertainment, resigned from the MEC board.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
Sign up for our Email flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Tags: farallon capital management, Frank Stronach, greenlight capital, jerry campbell, Magna, magna developments, Magna Entertainment, mec, mid, mim, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick
Posted in Magna Entertainment, Thoroughbred Business | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
Stock in Magna Entertainment, which only five months ago went through a 1 for 20 reverse stock split to keep from being delisted by NASDAQ because its share price had fallen under $1 for 30 consecutive trading days, has dropped below that threshold again.
After opening the day at $.89, share prices in the company (MECA) had fallen to $.74 by mid-afternoon after light trading. The stock has fallen steadily since the reverse split was enacted on July 22, a move that dramatically reduced the number of outstanding shares but bumped up the price from $.37 to $6.56.
MECA share prices held relatively even until mid-September, when the global financial crisis began to unfold, and the stock has tumbled since then. MECA closed at $1.75 on Sept. 30, spiked to $3.97 on Nov. 4, then quickly fell again, closing below $1 on Dec. 8, the first time since the split it fell below that mark.
MECA received noticed Feb. 12 that it had fallen out of compliance with NASDAQ regulations after share prices closed below $1 for 30 consecutive days. The reverse split was designed to keep the company in compliance
The racetrack operating founded and controlled by Thoroughbred breeder and auto parts mogul Frank Stronach owns such tracks as Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California, Pimlico and Laurel Park in Maryland, Gulfstream Park in Florida, Lone Star Park in Texas, Remington Park in Oklahoma, and Thistledown in Ohio. It has slot machine operations at Gulfstream Park and Remington Park. However, the company has significant debt and has never turned a profit. It also runs an account wagering company, Xpressbet, and is co-owner with Churchill Downs Inc. of the HorseRacing TV cable channel.
Plans were recently announced to restructure the company, pending the approval of shareholders in MI Developments, another Stronach company that is the largest shareholder in MECA.
Since Stronach took MECA public in 2000, the value of its stock has fallen 99.2%.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary.
Tags: Frank Stronach, gulfstream park, Horse Racing, horse racing tv, HRTV, Magna, Magna Entertainment, meca, mi developments, mid, nasdaq, Paulick Report, racetracks, Ray Paulick, reverse stock split, santa anita park, stronach, xpressbet
Posted in Churchill Downs Inc., Magna Entertainment | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
Halsey Minor thought he would be meeting with MI Developments (MID) chief executive officer Dennis Mills in Baltimore, Md., on Wednesday morning to discuss Minor’s proposed buyout of the company’s $100-million loan to Magna Entertainment (MECA), the financially beleaguered racetrack company that operates Santa Anita Park and Golden Gate Fields in California, Gulfstream Park in Florida, and Pimlico and Laurel Park in Maryland, among other facilities.
When Mills failed to show, Minor called him, only to discover that Mills was still at Magna’s corporate headquarters in Canada putting out a press release outlining new loans from MI Developments to Magna Entertainment, further extensions of existing loans, and a proposed reorganization that could put the racetrack company more firmly under the control of Frank Stronach. The proposed reorganization, subject to MI Developments shareholder approval, is “an egregious attempt to hijack shareholder value and will never pass,” Minor told the Paulick Report.
Minor, a technology entrepreneur who created CNET.com among other Internet companies, is a horse owner and breeder who has also expressed interest in buying and restoring the dormant Hialeah Park in South Florida.
“He stood me up to put out this press release?” Minor said of Mills. “It might have been good to have met with me before the press release, because we have a better offer, by far, that will be far more acceptable to MID shareholders. It was a good faith attempt on my part to sit down with him and see if there was something we could do. Instead they put out this preposterous press release and he stands me up the day before Thanksgiving after I traveled all the way here to meet with him.
“I could have told Mills that what he put out, even though the stock is up a few pennies, has no chance of passing. There is a contingency (among MID shareholders) that is of the mind that says, ‘We’ll do anything to get rid of Frank,’ but this proposal doesn’t really fully get rid of him."
At least two institutional shareholders in MID, Farallon Capital Management and Greenlight Capital, have suggested possible legal action for breach of fiduciary responsibilty by MID’s board of directors over the MECA loans, one of them calling MECA a "financial sinkhole." A previous proposal to hand MECA over to Frank Stronach was voted down by MID shareholders earlier this year.
The proposal calls for a new loan from MID to MECA of $50 million to fund current operations and $75 million to pay for a possible slots license and temporary facility in Maryland, along with extensions of an existing bridge loan and of repayment deadline for another $100-million loan.
A second stage of the proposal, subject to shareholder approval, calls for MID to purchase unsold real estate in Dixon, Calif., and near the Palm Meadows training facility in Florida at what it calls “fair market value.” It also seeks additional extensions on the loans and the option to repay the loans in MECA stock instead of cash. The third and final stage, taking control of MECA away from MID and into the hands of an entity called the “Stronach Group,” is contingent upon MECA retiring its convertible bonds.
Minor insists that even if the proposal somehow gets shareholder approval, MECA will fail. “Frank doesn’t buy the stock until after the $295 million in convertible bonds are paid off,” he said. “If they are not paid, the company goes bankrupt. The slots deal in Maryland is terrible, and most of the big guys have said they are not even going to try to get the license. It’s only 33% (of revenue), versus close to 50% in Pennsylvania and Delaware. He has to spend $250 million to build his slots parlor, then give 60% of his profits to (Joe) DeFrancis (who sold his family’s interests in the Maryland tracks to Magna with a contingency for a share of any future slots revenue). So his own deal, which sucks all this money away from MID shareholders, would itself have a life of a year or two before it went under. This is Stronach’s way of saying, ‘I have this company (MID) hostage. If you want me to go away, you have to pay up.’
“The shareholders fully intend to have their day with Frank.”
Magna Entertainment (MECA) closed at $2.01 on Wednesday, up $.60, a gain of 42.8% on the day. MI Developments (MIM) gained $1.62 to close at $10.05, up 19.2%.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
Tags: dennis mills, farallon capital management, Frank Stronach, greenlight capital, gulfstream park, Halsey Minor, Magna, Magna Entertainment, Maryland Jockey Club, maryland slots, mec, meca, mi developments, mid, mid shareholders, mim, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, santa anita, stronach, stronach group
Posted in Halsey Minor, Magna Entertainment | 13 Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
MI Developments, the publicly traded real estate concern that is the largest single shareholder in racetrack operator Magna Entertainment, is under fire again from one of its biggest shareholders, this time for ignoring an offer from technology entrepreneur Halsey Minor to buy the outstanding loans Magna Entertainment has been unable to repay to its parent company.
Minor made an offer last month to buy Magna Entertainment’s debt obligation and went public Oct. 17 after failing to get a response from the MI Developments board.
David Einhorn, the president of the Greenlight Capital investment fund that owns 10% of the Class A shares in MI Developments, is demanding that the MI Developments board of directors give serious consideration to Minor’s offer without interference from Frank Stronach, who controls both MI Developments and Magna Entertainment. Einhorn expressed his demands in a letter to the MI Developments board filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on Tuesday. Greenlight has had a longstanding battle with MI Developments and lost an earlier lawsuit against the company alleging shareholders were oppressed by board of director decisions.
The demands from Einhorn come two weeks after a similar letter was written to the MI Developments board by a managing member of the Farallon Capital Management investment fund, threatening legal action and alleging breach of fiduciary responsibility.
Einhorn’s letter accuses the MI Developments board and CEO Dennis Mills of making “false and misleading” promises and says that ignoring Minor’s offer was a “clear violation of the board’s fiduciary duty and duty of care to its shareholders.”
The letter says MI Developments board members “continue to abandon ship,” and accuses Stronach of stacking the board with “cronies” and “childhood friends.”
“The MID board has a long history of ignoring our letters, and those of other large MID shareholders,” Einhorn writes. “The MID board can not continue to stick its head in the sand and ignore the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the MID shareholders.
“Since ignoring the Minor Offer is clearly a violation of the MID board’s duties, we expect, and demand as shareholders of MID, that the MID board immediately take up serious consideration of the Minor Offer without Mr. Stronach’s interference. Any transaction in which MID can be rid of its unlimited and never-ending exposure to MEC must be taken seriously. We minority shareholders rely on you to protect our interests from Mr. Stronach’s uneconomic and self-serving support of MEC and remind you that you will be held accountable if you fail to fulfill your fiduciary duty to the MID shareholders.”
Click here to read the Einhorn letter.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Tags: david einhorn, dennis mills, farallon, farallon capital management, Frank Stronach, greenlight capital, Halsey Minor, Magna, Magna Entertainment, meca, mi developments, mid
Posted in Halsey Minor, Magna Entertainment | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
By Ray Paulick
A major institutional investor in MI Developments, the Frank Stronach-controlled real estate company that has kept Stronach’s failing racetrack entity Magna Entertainment afloat with bridge loans, has threatened legal action against the MI Developments board of directors, alleging they have “flagrantly breached their fiduciary duties to shareholders.”
Richard Fried, a managing member of the San Francisco-based Farallon Capital Management that owns 8.5% of the Class A shares in MI Developments, protested the board’s most recent extension and expansion of a now $125-million bridge loan and delay of a due date of a separate $100 million loan payment. Fried wrote that Magna Entertainment “has been, is, and will remain a financial sinkhole. Continuing to finance it offers no conceivable benefit to MID’s shareholders.”
“There is no possible justification for the Board to approve loans to a near bankrupt horseracing concern, especially one that is hopelessly entangled with irrational, non-economic, and conflicted parties and has a track record of massive value destruction,” Fried wrote. The letter was filed with the Securities Exchange Commission on Friday, the same day that technology entrepreneur and Thoroughbred owner and breeder Halsey Minor went public with an offer to buy out MI Developments’ loans to Magna Entertainment.
The letter said Farallon concludes that “the (MI Developments) Board is pursuing a value-destroying investment instead of a relatively safe and accretive investment because the Board is ignoring common shareholders’ interests and is only interested in pleasing Frank Stronach, even if his desires conflict with the best interests of MID’s shareholders.”
Farallon also went on record as opposing what it called “an ill-conceived transaction” that would have MI Developments buying out Magna Entertainment, whose stock has lost more than 95% of its equity value. MI Developments already owns a controlling interest in Magna Entertainment, which operates Santa Anita Park (host of the Breeders’ Cup world championships in 2008 and 2009), Gulfstream Park, Lone Star Park, the Maryland Jockey Club tracks Pimlico and Laurel, and Golden Gate Fields.
“We believe the Board’s duties require it to end MID’s support of MEC and focus urgently with management on developing a coherent and fair reorganization plan. You must tell Mr. Stronach that his time for self-serving maneuvers is over. It is time for you to meet your fiduciary duties as directors. If you do not, Farallon will consider all legal tools available to it as a shareholder.”
Magna successfully defended a previous lawsuit by Greenlight Financial alleging that Greenlight and other investors were oppressed by Stronach and the MI Developments board.
Click here for the complete text of the Farallon Capital Management letter.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Tags: Breeders' Cup, cnet, farallon capital management, farfallon, financial sinkhole, Frank Stronach, gulfstream park, Halsey Minor, Horse Racing, laurel, lone star park, Magna, Magna Entertainment, magna entertainment farfallon capital management, Maryland Jockey Club, meca, mi develoments, mi developments, mid, Paulick Report, pimlico, Ray Paulick, richard fried, santa anita park, stronach
Posted in Halsey Minor, Magna Entertainment | 8 Comments »
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
By Ray Paulick
While Congress begins deliberations on the proposed economic bailout package that could cost taxpayers as much as $1 trillion, Thoroughbred owners and breeders are beginning to feel the effects of the turbulence on Wall Street and other world markets.
The financial markets meltdown came smack dab in the middle of the industry’s most important transactional event: the Keeneland September yearling sale. The sale began with a lowered price ceiling during opening select sessions that saw some resilience in the middle market, but, as many consignors feared, the bottom fell out after the first week. Most yearlings going through the ring in the latter part of the Keeneland sale will reflect economic losses to their owners once stud fees, mare investment and boarding costs are taken into consideration.
But those losses are minor compared to what’s happened on Wall Street, which traditionally has created much of the wealth that’s found its way into the yearling market. “If anyone is dependent on new money in the horse business, I don’t think this is going to be a very good time for them,” one business analyst told the Paulick Report.
In addition, many yearling-to-juvenile sale pinhookers from Florida depend on bank loans to fund at least a portion of their investment, and those loans or lines of credit from banks are evaporating in the current crisis that actually began last August with the sub-prime mortgage fiasco.
Loans of all kinds will be more difficult to acquire, one banker told the Paulick Report, whether it’s for pin-hooking, stallion and mare acquisitions, or real estate. “A wide range of people need bank financing to buy farms or mares,” he said. “Some people who didn’t start off thinking they wanted to borrow end up taking out loans just like any other business often does. Stallion deals are often supported by banks. No matter what you are borrowing money for, it’s harder now and it will cost more. Everything is going to be more difficult.” In addition, the banker said, many businesses with “standing operating lines of credit” are going to feel the crunch. “There are acquisitional and seasonal businesses. Some spend money all year and collect over just a couple of weeks. Stallion or mare purchases term out over a number of years.”
The crisis could have a severe effect on the bloodstock markets at Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland in October and November, especially for mares in the $50,000 and under price range. It is expected the top end of the market, which is unlikely to establish any new records for high prices, will maintain some semblence of strength. The deadline to enter mares and weanlings in Keeneland’s massive November breeding stock sale preceded the financial market meltdown. What will be interesting to follow is the number of horses entered for Keeneland’s January sale of horses of all ages. Will breeders look ahead at cutting their losses on marginal mares and newly turned yearlings? The credit tightening comes as uninsured money market funds have disappeared into treasury bills and other secured investments. Banks that were counting on money market dollars to buy up bonds, mortgages and other loans now require cash on hand to extend credit to their customers. That cash, in many institutions, simply doesn’t exist in abundance.
“Things that have some value in the real world, like real estate loans, have no value in the market,” one analyst said. “Assets that used to be like cash no longer are like cash.” Many in the horse business are watching how the crisis is affecting the financially troubled Magna Entertainment ( MECA) and its real estate affiliate, MI Developments ( MID). Magna Entertainment is the racetrack operating company that is living month to month on bridge loans from MID and other creditors. Magna, controlled by Frank Stronach, owns Santa Anita Park (host of the 2008 and 2009 Breeders’ Cup) and Golden Gate Fields in California, Gulfstream Park in Florida, Pimlico and Laurel Park in Maryland, Lone Star Park in Texas, and Remington Park in Oklahoma, and several smaller tracks. Its stock, battered in recent years and recently the subject of a 1-for-20 reverse split to retain its listing on the exchange, has declined by 25% in the last five trading days, closing Monday at $4.39 per share.
Copyright © 2008, The Paulick Report
Support the Paulick Report. Make a donation today.
Visit the Paulick Report for all the latest news throughout the racing world.
Sign up for our Email Flashes to get the latest news, analysis and commentary from Ray Paulick
Tags: Breeders' Cup, breeding stock sales, credit tightening, fasig-tipton, Frank Stronach, horse business, Keeneland, keeneland january horses of all ages sale, keeneland november breeding stock sale, keeneland september yearling sale, magna developments, Magna Entertainment, market meltdown, meca, mid, Paulick Report, pinhookers, Ray Paulick, real estate market, stallion acquisitions, Thoroughbred breeding, wall street crisis, yearling sales
Posted in Breeding, Keeneland, Magna Entertainment, Pinhooking, Thoroughbred Auctions | 9 Comments »
|
|
