Hotel exec, Swiss billionaire make bid for Sun Sentinel’s parent company

Maryland hotel executive Stewart Bainum and Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss have made a fully financed $680 million bid for Tribune Publishing, owners of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, according to a source close to the situation.

The $18.50-per-share bid for the Chicago-based newspaper chain is higher than the $17.25 per share offered by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. The new bid was received and verified by the Tribune Publishing board, beginning a due diligence process that could lead to a firm deal within weeks, according to the source.

If that happens, the longterm plan is for Bainum to own the Baltimore Sun and Wyss to own the Chicago Tribune, and to sell off the rest of the Tribune Publishing newspapers to individual or group owners, the source said.

Mason Slaine, a Boca Raton investor in Tribune Publishing and former media industry executive, offered last month to contribute $100 million to the Bainum and Wyss bid, but he is not part of the current financing, sources said. Slaine said Sunday that he remains interested in owning Tribune Publishing’s Florida newspapers, the Sun Sentinel and the Orlando Sentinel.

Slain declined to comment when the Sun Sentinel reached him Monday. He said previously that he considers the newspapers to be “a sacred public trust” and that strong investigative journalism is “a necessary part of creating a safe and honest society.”

Tribune Publishing also owns the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant; the New York Daily News; the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland; The Morning Call in Allentown, Pennsylvania; the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia; and The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia.

Bainum and Wyss, who previously committed $100 million each to buy Tribune Publishing, have agreed to finance the entire $680 million between themselves to expedite the deal, according to the source. The financing doesn’t include any other investors, but Bainum and Wyss could pursue debt financing if a deal with Tribune is reached, the source said.

If Tribune accepted their offer, Alden would have four business days to match it or receive a $20 million breakup fee, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

An Alden spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Sunday. Tim Ragones, a spokesman for the special committee of the Tribune Publishing board vetting the offers, declined to comment.

The Wall Street Journal first reported about the fully financed offer from Bainum and Wyss.

Alden, a New York-based hedge fund and Tribune Publishing’s largest shareholder with a 31.6% stake, reached an agreement in February to buy the rest of the company at $17.25 per share and take it private. The deal, which values Tribune Publishing at about $633 million, requires approval from two-thirds of the other shareholders in a proxy vote to be scheduled, as well as regulatory approval.

In 2019, Alden, which has a track record of sweeping layoffs at its newspaper properties, purchased 11.5 million shares of Tribune Publishing for $145.4 million, or about $12.64 per share.

The chairman of Maryland-based Choice Hotels International, Bainum signed a nonbinding agreement to buy The Baltimore Sun for $65 million upon Alden’s acquisition of Tribune Publishing. That deal hit a snag last month over the terms of a transition services agreement for the Sun, leading Bainum to seek an exit from the deal to pursue buying all of Tribune Publishing.

Wyss, an octogenarian former CEO of medical device manufacturer Synthes who lives in Wyoming and runs a conservation foundation, teamed up with Bainum last month to support journalism and guide the fortunes of the Chicago Tribune, the flagship newspaper of Tribune Publishing.