Codere shareholders terminate Martinez Sampedro board representation

Codere shareholders terminate Martinez Sampedro board representation

The boardroom dispute of Bolsa Madrid gambling group Codere SA continues as company shareholders have moved to withdraw outright the governance representation of the enterprise founding Martinez Sampedro family.

A Spanish Capital Markets filing has revealed that a majority of Codere shareholders voted at the firm’s annual general meeting to remove brothers’ Jose Antonio (former President) and Luis Javier (former VP) from the company boardroom replacing the family representatives with legal advisors Alberto Manzanares and Fernando Sempere.

In addition, Codere shareholders overwhelmingly voted against the Martinez Sampedro’s demand to withdraw Norman Sorensen as Executive Chairman of the company.

The Martinez Sampedro family which maintains 18% of Codere capital, had denounced Sorensen’s chairmanship as a manipulation of the company’s governance by US debt holders.

Following the conclusion of the AGM, which aimed to resolve Codere’s two-year boardroom dispute, Martinez Sampedro representatives have confirmed that the family will move to challenge the shareholders’ actions.

Last June, Spain’s Capital Markets Commission (CNMV) confirmed that it had approved the Martinez Sampedro’s appeal for the commission to investigate whether US hedge fund Silver Point Capital had purposely engineered its control of Codere shareholdings and management structures, obstructing the Martinez Sampedro board representation and executive management rights.

Entering  Codere’s ‘Critical AGM’,  Martínez Sampedro representatives had revealed that the family would be willing to negotiate exit terms from the firm, costing US investors a separation fee of circa €210 million.


Source: SBC News