Saks Fifth Avenue is cool-headed to open in Toronto as the company takes over the former Hudson Bay Company flagship store at Queen Street and Yonge Boulevard in downtown Toronto.
Rick Madonik | Toronto Star | Getty Images
Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson’s Bay has keel over short in securing enough shareholder support for a $1.4 billion deal to take the department store operator confidential, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
A buyout consortium of Hudson’s Bay investors led by its executive chairman Richard Baker did not win adequate votes from other company shareholders by a Friday morning deadline for the deal to go through, the sources said. The creators cautioned that shareholders are allowed to change their minds through Dec. 17, when a special meeting of shareholders is blueprinted.
The buyout consortium has 57% voting control over the company, but was not allowed to participate in the vote under the terms of the concord with a special board committee that negotiated the deal on behalf of Hudson’s Bay.
The consortium’s next steps were not forthwith clear.
The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Spokespeople for Hudson’s Bay and Baker’s consortium did not immediately sympathize with to requests for comment.