George Feldenkreis, founder and former chairman of Perry Ellis International Inc., can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
On Thursday, the company held a special meeting for shareholders at company headquarters in Miami to vote yay or nay on the merger agreement it signed in June with Feldenkreis. Shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the merger. At the end of the voting tally, 87 percent of the shares not controlled by the Feldenkreis family voted in favor of the merger.
The $437 million transaction at $27.50 a share, when it closes, will take Perry Ellis private and back under family ownership. The deal is expected to close over the next week or two. Once the deal closes, Perry Ellis shares will no longer be traded and the stock will be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market.
Feldenkreis made public his plans to buy back the company earlier this year. The entire process has taken some unusual twists and turns, mostly due to a competing offer from Randa Accessories. Perry Ellis elected to stick with the Feldenkreis offer.
The structure of the transaction, which didn’t require any contingencies on the licensing front, made it hard to beat. Helping Feldenkreis block the competing Randa offer was a decision of one of Perry Ellis’ largest licensees, believed to be Nike, to not agree to continue its business with the company if Randa took over. Critics have said a huge stumbling block for Randa is its history in accessories, not in apparel. It’s a bone of contention for Randa, which has disputed any talk of its limitations as just an accessories licensee.
Feldenkreis’ son, Oscar, is the chief executive officer of the company.