Ralcorp Holdings Inc. has the ability to sell Vail Resorts Inc.’s stock – which is trading near a record high – on the open market, according to a document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
According to an amended shareholder agreement filed by Ralcorp, Vail Resorts’ largest shareholder no longer has to give Vail Resorts the right of first refusal if it wants to sell stock. It holds 7.55 million shares of common stock in Vail Resorts, or 20.6 percent of the shares outstanding as of Sept. 26. Ralcorp’s shares are worth roughly $240 million.
Vail Resorts and Ralcorp declined to comment on the filing.
With a market capitalization of $1.15 billion, Vail Resorts owns Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly near Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada.
St. Louis-based Ralcorp, with a market cap of $1.21 billion, manufactures store-brand crackers, cereal, cookies and dressings. It sold Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin to Vail Resorts in 1997. The U.S. Justice Department required Vail to sell Arapahoe Basin.
Ralcorp chief executive Joe Micheletto and board chairman William Stiritz sit on Vail Resorts’ board of directors.
Last October, New York buyout firm Apollo Advisors converted its 6.1 million shares of Vail Resorts’ Class A stock – a 17.8 percent stake – into common stock and distributed those shares to its limited-partner investors, dissolving its controlling stake in the company.
Shares of Vail Resorts closed at an all-time high of $32.01 last week, buoyed by an upgrade from Lehman Brothers, which said the market is undervaluing the company’s resort and real-estate assets.
Two weeks ago, the company reported 2005 fiscal net income of $23.1 million, up from a net loss of $6 million in 2004.
Vail Resorts stock closed at $31.43 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, down 24 cents.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-820-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
