The Grand Ole Opry apparently remains a key investment for parent company Gaylord Entertainment even as four powerful new shareholders took seats on the parent company's board of directors at the hotel chain's annual meeting on Thursday.
Robert Rowling, a billionaire Texas oilman and hotel owner whose TRT Holdings owns 14.9 percent of Gaylord's stock, said after the shareholders' gathering that he is a "huge country music fan" and doesn't intend to tamper with the Opry.
"The new board members intend to be great stewards of that asset," he said of Gaylord's fabled entertainment attraction, which has been a Nashville staple since it began in 1925 as a live weekly music performance on WSM-AM radio, also owned by Gaylord.
When Gaylord Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Colin V. Reed opened the floor to questions at the end of Thursday's annual meeting, shareholder Stacy Harris of Nashville asked about Gaylord's level of support for the Opry. It was the only question anyone asked in public.
"I think to a person, they revere the Grand Ole Opry and what it stands for," Reed said of the new board members.
Besides Rowling, the new directors are David Johnson also representing TRT; and Robert S. Prather Jr. and Glenn J. Angiolillo of New York-based GAMCO, another major investor. None of the other three was available for comment. GAMCO Asset Management Inc. amassed ownership of more than 13 percent of Gaylord's stock last year.
GAMCO and TRT had earlier criticized Gaylord's top management, including Reed, for what they viewed as financial missteps, including failing to control costs at its newly opened Gaylord National hotel and resort near Washington. Since agreeing to take seats on Gaylord's board, though, the sparring factions agreed not to continue taking verbal potshots at each other.
Reed told Harris that Gaylord's board would be "looking at the overall plan" for the Opry at a September meeting but did not indicate whether any changes in direction would be considered. During other remarks, Reed said that despite a weakened national economy the Opry had registered "a decent year in 2008."
Reed told shareholders that the outlook for the hospitality industry remains weak nationally as corporations and associations cancel conventions and meetings to cut costs. He said Gaylord had been diligent in seeking to collect cancellation fees from companies that back out of meeting plans.
After the shareholders' meeting, R. Brad Martin, a Gaylord director and the former chairman and chief executive of Saks Inc., said he remains "very positive" about the company's future. "The company is doing a great job navigating a difficult environment," he said.
Rowling said he believes in the future of Gaylord despite a rocky stock performance. The company's stock closed down $1.24 per share, or 7.4 percent, at $15.56 per share in New York Stock Exchange trading on Thursday. That's down from a 52-week high of $36.27 per share, stock exchange data show.
'Unique' in industry
"We think the meeting market they target is a great place to be," said Rowling, who owns the Dallas-based Omni hotel chain, as well as Gold's Gym International, oil company Tana Exploration, and Mexican retailer Waldo's Dollar Mart.
"They're unique, occupying a space where nobody else is," Rowling said. "We're suffering now because meetings have gotten much smaller." But he said he expects the business to recover as the economy improves.
Rowling first became acquainted with Gaylord by watching it develop the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, near TRT's headquarters, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment