Shareholders in Rocky Mountain Equipment (RME) have voted in favour of taking the publicly-traded farm equipment dealer private.
The company says 72.3 per cent of the votes cast in a special meeting on December 17, 2020, were in favour of the arrangement to sell RME’s shares to a numbered company controlled by RME’s board chair Matthew Campbell and CEO Garrett Ganden. The deal required two-thirds approval to proceed.
RME is the largest independent agricultural equipment dealer in Canada and the second largest Case IH dealer in North America, operating 36 dealerships across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
The deal is now expected to receive approval from the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta on December 18. After all the conditions of the agreement are met, RME’s shares will be de-listed from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The buyers sweetened the deal for shareholders last week, increasing the per share payment from the original $7.00 offer to $7.41, boosting RME’s valuation to $144 million on an equity basis and $195 million including debt and lease obligations, and excluding floor plan payables.
The results follow a notice from RME earlier this month saying it had “become aware of certain proxy solicitation activities being conducted contrary to applicable securities laws” and had taken steps to curtail these activities.
Related: Rocky Mountain Equipment executives bid to take Canada’s largest ag equipment dealer private