Hudson’s Bay shareholders vote overwhelmingly to take company private

Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a plan to take the Canadian retailer private.

In a special meeting held on Thursday, shareholders voted with a 98.28 percent majority in favour of the plan, comfortably surpassing the required favourable vote of at least 75 percent. The resolution also required approval by a majority of the minority shareholders - it received 94.46 percent of their votes.

The move means HBC will become a private company owned by a group of continuing shareholders led by Richard Baker, governor and executive chairman of HBC. The company’s other shareholders will receive 11 dollars per share in cash.

The arrangement is expected to be completed on or around 3 March.

“Our reason for wanting to be private was so that we can focus our time and energy and dollars on re-investing in the business,” Baker told Reuters. “We will be able to use our dollars to re-invest online and re-invest in product and in sales teams and in our stores, and I think that will put us in a better position to grow our business.”

As part of its turnaround strategy, the retailer also sold luxury department store chain Lord + Taylor to fashion rental subscription service Le Tote in a 100 million dollar deal in November and in September confirmed it would be completely exiting the Netherlands.

Photo credit: Hudson’s Bay, Amsterdam. Credits: Steven Lek, Wikipedia Commons