PENSKE AUTOMOTIVE GROUP INC
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 16, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 16, 2024
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Item 3. Legal Proceedings
On December 27, 2023, Plaintiff Jeffrey Edelman (“Plaintiff”), a purported stockholder of ours, filed a putative class action and stockholder derivative complaint (the “Complaint”) in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (the “Court”) against all of our directors, a former director, and Penske Corporation (“PC”) (together, the “Defendants”) under the caption Edelman v. Penske, et al., C.A. No. 2023-1291-JTL (the “Action”). The claims in the Complaint related to our securities repurchase programs in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Among other allegations, the Plaintiff claimed that Board members breached their fiduciary duties in approving these securities repurchase programs and that PC and Roger S. Penske as controllers of the Company also breached their fiduciary duties because the repurchase programs allegedly permitted the controllers to attain majority voting control of the Company without paying a control premium. The Defendants believe that the allegations of the Complaint were meritless, deny those allegations, and deny that any violation of applicable law has occurred. However, solely to minimize expenses and distraction and to avoid the uncertainty of any litigation, we entered into the Voting Agreement defined and described in the Company's prior Form 8-K, filed with the SEC on January 24, 2024, and below. On January 24, 2024, the parties entered into a Stipulation and Proposed Order Voluntarily Dismissing The Action As Moot (the “Stipulation and Proposed Order”), pursuant to which the Court would retain jurisdiction regarding any application Plaintiff may make for an award of attorney’s fees. The Court entered the Stipulation and Proposed Order on January 24, 2024, and retained jurisdiction to approve a form of notice concerning attorneys’ fees payable to Plaintiff in connection with the Voting Agreement and the Action. The Company subsequently agreed to pay $995,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses in full satisfaction of any and all claims by Plaintiff and all of his counsel for fees and expenses in the Action. On February 8, 2024, the Court entered an order closing the Action, subject to the Company filing an affidavit with the Court confirming that this notice has been issued.
In entering the order, the Court was not asked to review, and did not pass judgment on, the payment of the attorneys’ fees and expenses or their reasonableness. Plaintiff’s counsel are Stephen E. Jenkins and Tiffany Geyer Lydon of Ashby & Geddes, P.A., (302) 654-1888, and Gregory Mark Nespole, Daniel Tepper, Correy A. Suk, and Cinar Oney of Levi & Korsinsky, LLP, (212) 363-7500. Counsel to the Company and the individual defendants except for Roger S. Penske are Raymond J. DiCamillo and Blake Rohrbacher of Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., (302) 651-7700. Counsel to Roger S. Penske and PC is John P. DiTomo of Morris, Nichols, Arsht, & Tunnell LLP, (302) 351-9329.
PC currently beneficially owns 34,181,121 shares of our Voting Common Stock, representing 51% of our outstanding Voting Common Stock. On January 23, 2024, we entered into a voting agreement (the “Voting Agreement”) with PC pursuant to which PC agreed, on each matter brought to a vote at any annual or special meeting of our stockholders and in connection with any action proposed to be taken by consent of our stockholders in lieu of a meeting, to vote all shares of Voting Common Stock, or other voting or equity securities of ours which could be issued (together with the Voting Common Stock, the “Voting Securities”) beneficially owned by PC, that, together with the Voting Securities held by Roger S. Penske, our Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and any entity that Roger S. Penske controls, exceed 43.57% of the outstanding Voting Securities (the “Excess Voting Securities”), in the same proportion as all votes cast by stockholders other than PC, Roger S. Penske or any entity that Roger S. Penske controls (except as otherwise required by the existing PM Shareholders Agreement as defined and described below). Any Voting Securities that are not Excess Voting Securities may be voted at the discretion of PC. The Voting Agreement will terminate per its terms at the time that PC ceases to beneficially own 30% or more of the Voting Securities then outstanding. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Voting Agreement does not impact the provisions of that certain stockholders agreement (the “PM Shareholders Agreement”) by and among PC, Penske Automotive Holdings Corp. (the “Penske companies”) and Mitsui pursuant to which, in connection with any stockholder election of directors of the Company, (i) the Penske companies have agreed to vote their shares for two directors who are representatives of Mitsui as long as Mitsui owns in excess of 20% of our outstanding common stock, and for one director as long as Mitsui owns in excess of 10% of our outstanding common stock, and (ii) Mitsui in turn has agreed to vote its shares for up to fourteen directors voted for by the Penske companies.
In addition to the matters discussed above, from time to time we are a party to litigation and other legal proceedings, including class action claims and purported class action claims, in the ordinary course of business. Such claims may be brought by governmental authorities, customers, vendors, stockholders, or employees. We are not a party to any legal proceedings, including class action lawsuits, that individually or in the aggregate are reasonably expected to have a material effect on us. However, the results of these matters cannot be predicted with certainty, and an unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters could have a material adverse effect.
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