Marcus Smith said the offer of $18.00 per share is a 31% premium over Monday’s closing price of $13.94getty images
The Smith family's proposal to take SMI private is worth more than $734M, with SMI President & CEO Marcus Smith citing "financial headwinds facing the racing industry as a reason for the move," according to a front-page piece by Peralta & Marks of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The Smith family and its Sonic Financial Corp. "already own approximately 29 million shares and control over 70% of the voting power" of SMI. Smith said that the $18.00 per share that his family will pay for the company’s outstanding shares "represents 'a significant premium' of 31% to Monday’s closing price of $13.94." The company’s shares closed Wednesday at $18.55. Smith: "NASCAR has indicated the sport would benefit from structural change. We believe [SMI] would be more able to compete in this challenging and changing environment as a private company" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 4/25). In Charlotte, Ken Elkins noted SMI's BOD has "created a special committee to evaluate" the proposal, but "no deadline for the committee’s recommendations was disclosed." The move "acknowledges that NASCAR and other auto-racing series are shrinking" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 4/24).
