BOUCHERVILLE, Que. — RONA shareholders have elected with near-unanimity to accept Lowe’s friendly takeover offer. At a special shareholders’ meeting, more than 99% of investors approved the deal, which represented a premium of 104% to the closing price of shares before the offer was announced last month. Yesterday’s vote pitted common stockholders against preferred, who stood to take a hit of $5 per share from the original purchase price. Only 43% of “prefs” participated in the vote, with 75% of their shares being voted against the deal. Representing about 2% of the total equity, they failed to sway the vote.
RONA chairman Robert Chevrier expressed that he was “very, very, very pleased” with the outcome, and affirmed his faith in Lowe’s pledge to maintain head office operations and not to slash jobs. Activist shareholder Jean Dorion, however, called on the federal and provincial governments to hold Lowe’s to its word. “We hope that government authorities pressure [Lowe’s] so that the commitments made by Lowe’s are respected,” he said. RONA CEO Robert Sawyer will be succeeded by Lowe’s Canada president Sylvain Prud’homme, recruited after the retailer’s unsolicited first bid was rebuffed by RONA in 2012.
