MGM China owners nod 2014 dividend, Hornbuckle

May 15, 2015 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck  

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Voting shareholders of Macau casino operator MGM China Holdings Ltd on Thursday unanimously approved payment of a final dividend for 2014 of HKD0.245 (US$0.0316) per share.

The annual general meeting also overwhelmingly approved – with 98.8 percent of the vote – the re-election of Bill Hornbuckle as an executive director of the company, according to a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Another executive director, two non-executive directors and one independent non-executive director were also re-elected to the MGM China board with 99 percent of the vote in each case.

Mr Hornbuckle is also president of MGM Resorts International, the U.S.-based casino operator that is 51 percent owner of MGM China.

Some investors in MGM Resorts have not been as keen to back the status quo as MGM China shareholders.

On Tuesday, Land and Buildings Investment Management LLC – a Connecticut-based hedge fund that argues shareholder value in MGM Resorts has been mismanaged relative to industry peers and could be vastly improved – urged investors at MGM Resorts’ annual general meeting on May 28 to vote to remove Robert Baldwin, a 15-year veteran of the board. Mr Baldwin has been chief design and construction officer of the company since August 2007.

On Wednesday, MGM Resorts said in a statement that independent proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services Inc had recommended MGM’s shareholders vote for the re-election of all eleven of MGM’s director nominees.

Land and Buildings wants MGM Resorts to be split into a separate real estate investment trust (REIT) and a hotel management company.

(Updated at 2.50pm, Friday May 15)

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