$2.1B deal to sell Red Lobster slammed as ‘fire sale’ in suit
A controversial deal to sell Red Lobstešr is still causing indš¦igestion.
Starboard Value LP has sued Dź¦arden Rešøstaurants over its $2.1 billion agreement in May to sell Red Lobster to buyout firm Golden Gate, demanding books and records amid allegations of āa fire-sale price.ā
Starboard, a New York hedge funź¦ŗd whose successful effort to demand a special shareholder meeting this spring over the issue was ignored by Dardenās board, also disclosed in a ź¦securities filing that it has increased its Darden stake to 8 percent.
āStarboard has attempted to negotiate in good faith the conditions for the company to turn over the requested records,ā Starboard said in an activistā 13D shareholder filing with the Securities andš Exchange Commission Thursday.
But Darden, which also owns Olive Garden, The Capital Grille and Bahama Breeze, āwas not willing to accept reasonable terms regarding confidentiality restrictionsā on books and records requested in June, Starboard said išn the filing, complaining of āmonths of maneuversā to silence shareholder dissent.
Stź¦¦arboard, which is now looking to shake up Dardenš ās board, has argued that Darden should have spun off all of its real estate assets into a separately traded company.
By selling Red Lobster, the potential value of such a transaction has been badly diminished, šStarboard has argued.
Darden said it found Starboardās demand for the books āimproperā and āoverbroad,ā and said the information wšøas āprivileged.ā