Philadelphia – Aramark Corp., the largest U.S.-based food-service company, will be taken private after shareholders overwhelmingly approved a $6.3 billion buyout bid Wednesday.
It marked the second time that a group of investors led by chairman and chief executive Joseph Neubauer moved to take Ara mark off the stock market. The first time, in 1984, was to thwart a “hostile takeover attempt that could have been the end of the company,” Neubauer told a meeting of shareholders Wednesday.
This time, Neubauer and the investors think going private can create more value for the business than was reflected by Wall Street in its stock price.
Of 606 million votes cast – mostly by proxy – 592 million, or 97 percent, supported the bid to put Aramark in private hands. Fewer than 100 attended the shareholder meeting.
The purchase price, approved by Aramark’s board in August, of $33.80 per share represents a 20 percent premium above Aramark’s closing price on April 28 – the last trading day before the buyout proposal was announced May 1.
The company most recently went public at $23 a share on Dec. 11, 2001. Since then, the stock price averaged $25.26 until April 28.
“We didn’t feel the company and its owners were being fully rewarded,” Neubauer said, in a statement to shareholders at the Marriott. “Our predictability, stability and historically strong cash flows provide us options – options we are willing to examine, explore and execute,” he said.
Private-equity firms involved with Neubauer in the Aramark deal are GS Capital Partners, CCMP Capital Advisors, J.P. Morgan Partners, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Warburg Pincus LLC.
