A boardroom battle is brewing at troubled theme parks operator Ardent Leisure as the company's major shareholder escalates a push for new representatives in the boardroom.
Ardent Leisure chairman George Vernardos has attacked a move from major shareholder Ariadne Australia to install new directors, labelling the move "destabilising" and at odds with its strategy to expand its US-based representation.
Ariadne, which is Ardent's largest shareholder with a 9.86 per cent stake, has returned fire, labelling the existing board "confused" and "in disarray".
Ariadne has signalled it wants to call a shareholder meeting to vote on appointing Ariadne executive director Gary Weiss and three other nominees to the Ardent board.
In response, Mr Vernardos revealed the board met Dr Weiss and his running mate, Kayaal Pty Ltd's Kevin Seymour, on June 8, and had undertaken to consider their appointment as directors before it was notified of the intention to call a general shareholder meeting to vote on the appointment of Dr Weiss, Mr Seymour and two others to the board.
The company said the move clashed with its current plan to search for US-based directors to support its focus on its Main Event tenpin bowling and entertainment centres.
"This development is destabilising and comes at a time when the board is undertaking a number of key initiatives to maximise long term value for securityholders," Mr Vernardos said.
He said the move stood "in stark contrast to the ostensibly friendly and good-faith discussion" held with Dr Weiss and Mr Seymour last week, where they did not mention a desire to install four rather than two directors.
"It is clear they want to override the board's existing search process and exert undue influence over the company's affairs," Mr Vernardos said.
In a response later on Wednesday, Ariadne said it had been speaking to Ardent since March.
"Given the delay in acting on our request and the rushed and confused decision making by the board in the past few weeks, we cannot wait any longer to seek to inject new and highly-experienced directors onto the Ardent board," Ariadne said.
Ariadne also said Ardent had got the name of one of its nominees - Andrew Hodges - wrong, clarifying that his name is Hedges.
Ariadne's move follow's Ardent's announcement late on Friday June 9 that former CEO Deborah Thomas was leaving the company on July 1 with a termination payout of $731,000.
Ardent said in April that Ms Thomas would take on a new role of chief customer officer.
Former Nine Entertainment COO Simon Kelly was named in April as Ms Thomas's successor from July 1, and Ardent has now accelerated his appointment to be effective from June 9.
Four people died at Ardent's Dreamworld theme park on the Queensland Gold Coast in October, 2016, sparking a fall in the company's share price that has not been fully recovered.
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