{"id":307332,"date":"2024-01-19T20:59:22","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=307332"},"modified":"2024-01-19T20:59:22","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T02:59:22","slug":"hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/","title":{"rendered":"HG Vora Blasts Penn Entertainment Over Board Composition"},"content":{"rendered":"

HG Vora, which is the largest investor in Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), demanded the regional casino restructure its board of directors while claiming the current configuration violates Pennsylvania corporate law.<\/p>\n

\"Penn
A slide from a Penn Entertainment investor presentation. Hedge fund HG Vora wants the casino operator to restructure its board. (Image: Penn Entertainment)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a recent letter to the gaming company signed by Mandy Lam, general counsel for HG Vora, the hedge fund asserted there\u2019s an \u201cunequal allocation\u201d of members across the various classes of Penn directors and that violates the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law of 1988 (BCL) as well as the operator\u2019s own articles of incorporation.<\/p>\n

The current structure of the Board is legally improper and disenfranchises shareholders by artificially constricting the number of directors who may stand for re-election at the Company\u2019s 2024 annual meeting,\u201d according to the letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a December 13D filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), HG Vora revealed it built an 18.5% stake in Penn<\/a> via common stock and options. The money manager requested the gaming company grant it board seats.<\/p>\n

HG Vora Shows Activist Hand with Penn<\/h2>\n

HG Vora, which has a lengthy history of investing in gaming companies, indicated it\u2019s pushing for change at Penn with the demand for board seats — a hall mark of many activist investors<\/a>. That activism continued with the claim that Penn\u2019s board structure is flawed.<\/p>\n

\n

The timing of the hedge fund\u2019s board activism toward the casino operator is pertinent because the company commenced director elections on Jan. 8 and the polling runs through Feb. 7. Penn\u2019s 11 directors include CEO Jay Snowden and Gaming and Leisure Properties<\/a> (NASDAQ: GLPI) CEO Peter Carlino. GLPI is the largest owner of real estate on which Penn casinos reside.<\/p>\n

HG Vora hasn\u2019t mentioned specific Penn directors it wants to replace if any. Of the 11-member board, 10 directors are white and four are women.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cOur board of directors is made up of professionals from many disciplines \u2014 including investment banking, asset management, tax accounting and consulting, advertising, gaming\/entertainment and more \u2014 and their level of expertise is unparalleled,\u201d according to the gaming company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

HG Vora Wants Fast Remedy<\/h2>\n

Corporate governance niceties aside, HG Vora detailed how Penn may be in violation of the BCL. In the letter to the board, the hedge fund noted that Penn had seven board members in 2020 — two apiece in Class I and Class III roles and three in Class II. In November, the director count increased to eight with the addition of another Class III member.<\/p>\n

HG Vora added that just two days before Penn\u2019s 2021 annual member, another Class director was added, bringing that group to four.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince that time, PENN\u2019s allocation of members across each class of the Board (two in Class I, three in Class II and four in Class III) fails to comply with the requirements of the BCL and the Articles that the class sizes be \u2018as nearly equal in number as possible<\/em>,\u2019\u201d the money manager wrote. \u201cWe expect the Company to remedy this violation promptly, and we reserve all rights to take action to ensure PENN complies with the BCL and the Articles.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HG Vora, which is the largest investor in Penn Entertainment (NASDAQ: PENN), demanded the regional casino restructure its board of directors while claiming the current configuration violates Pennsylvania corporate law. In a recent letter to the gaming company signed by Mandy Lam, general counsel for HG Vora, the hedge fund asserted there\u2019s an \u201cunequal allocation\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":243056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,33810],"tags":[81903,81898],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHG Vora Wants Penn Entertainment To Reconfigure Board<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"HG Vora Blasts Penn Entertainment Over Board Composition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"HG Vora Wants Penn Entertainment To Reconfigure Board\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"HG Vora Blasts Penn Entertainment Over Board Composition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-20T02:59:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/penn2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"578\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@etfgodfather\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Shriber\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/\",\"name\":\"HG Vora Wants Penn Entertainment To Reconfigure Board\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/penn2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-20T02:59:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-20T02:59:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f4cecf70a5032bc4e60eb73fc86d4a85\"},\"description\":\"HG Vora Blasts Penn Entertainment Over Board Composition.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/hg-vora-wants-penn-entertainment-to-reconfigure-board\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/penn2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/penn2.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":578,\"caption\":\"A slide from a Penn Entertainment investor presentation. 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