May 20th 2015, an offer made by the largest shareholder in Affinity Gaming, to buy the remaining shares of the casino operator has expired. The firm that made the offer believes that the company should be sold. Affinity owns several properties including Silver Sevens and Primm Valley Resort and Casino.
A letter to Affinity’s board, which was filed on Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Z Capital Partners based in Illinois said that the company had no real board leadership or is unable to make value for shareholders since it began in 2010 after the bankruptcy re-organization of Herbst Gaming.
Z Capital at the moment has a 39.5 stake in the company that operates 11 casinos in four states. In April, Z Capital offered to buy the remaining shares of the company at a rate of $9.75 per share in cash.
Z Capital would then own $119.84 million and Affinity would have $198.08 million.
James Zenni, the head of Z capital and a member on the Affinity’s board said, the value of the company has decreased by more than 30% in the last years; this was also stated in the letter.
They also said with the type of investors that are in the control group and also control the board they are not in a position to deliver value to the shareholders of Affinity Gaming in the future. They will only be able to do this, if there are fundamental changes. They also suggested that an orderly process to the sell the company as a whole or in component parts would be advised.
In April the company created a committee that consisted of independent directors to review the proposal of Z Capital and other strategic alternatives.
ICR’s, Jacques Cornet an external investor relations adviser for Affinity, said that the committee had not finished the process and the company also did not file anything with SEC about the offer.
SPH and Spectrum Group management, two shareholders of Affinity said in SEC filings that the offer from Z Capital was not supported because it was too low.
Two years ago, Zenni made a similar offer to buy Affinity Gaming. He was then placed on the board last year after a long legal battle with the board previous.
The chairman of Affinity, who is a senior analyst for Silver Point Capital, is Richard Parisi. Silver Point is the second largest shareholder in affinity holding 25.1%.
Last summer, Michael Silberling was appointed as the CEO of Affinity Gaming. Since the company has had a 1% increase in revenue in the first quarter and the cash flow increased to more than 30%.