The owner of upscale hotels, Ashford Hospitality Prime ($AHP), is trying to back door activist investorSessa Capital. It’s giving insiders additional voting power before the board vote. AHP is giving new voting interests to investors in an LP that the company controls. Most of those LP investors are AHP executives.
The move gives the CEO and COO 13% of the AHP voting power and allows the two to avoid taxes.
Sessa owns 8.2% and is waging a proxy battle. Sessa says its deeply troubled by the move and is a similar move done by Mylan when it fended off a hostile takeover. AHP spun out of Ashford Hospitality Trust a couple years ago and is considering a sale of the co. AHT is also facing its own activist investor, Rambleside Holdings, which wants AHT buybacks and removal of a termination fee payable to its external adviser.
