Charleston Daily Mail – A corporate raider, Pirate Capital, is taking aim at Intrawest Corp., the corporate parent of Snowshoe Mountain Resort.<\/p>\n
The outcome could be a new owner for Snowshoe, a premiere West Virginia ski resort and the largest employer in Pocahontas County. Snowshoe employs about 1,350 people during its peak season.<\/p>\n
Intrawest announced in February that it had started reviewing options to improve its value for shareholders, including a capital structure review, strategic partnerships or business combinations. The company said it had hired Goldman, Sachs & Co. to assist in the review.<\/p>\n
“Intrawest stands at a pivotal point in its evolution,” Joe Houssian, Intrawest’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in the press release that announced the review.<\/p>\n
“It makes sense for us at this time to evaluate all of the different ways in which we can capitalize on the opportunities in front of us for the benefit of shareholders and to ensure that we have the best possible capital structure in place.”<\/p>\n
On March 1, Pirate Capital sailed onto the scene and fired several broadsides.<\/p>\n
First, Pirate Capital said it had amassed 5.7 million shares of Intrawest’s stock, representing 11.8 percent of the outstanding shares.<\/p>\n