IRVING, TX—FelCor Lodging Trust Incorporated plans to appoint two new independent directors to its board of directors, who will then stand for re-election at the company’s 2016 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. FelCor also has entered into a letter agreement with Land and Buildings Investment Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor specializing in publicly traded real estate and real estate related securities.
Richard A. Smith, FelCor’s president and CEO, noted, “FelCor’s board has been keenly focused on enhancing corporate governance, including recently declassifying our board and beginning a search this past fall to bring aboard additional, exceptionally qualified and independent directors who will enhance the overall board diversity. We have always welcomed stockholder input, as reflected in this process, and are confident that all FelCor investors will benefit when we add two excellent new independent directors.”
FelCor and Land and Buildings are working together to recruit candidates, with the expectation that they will be elected by the board as directors in the very near term and nominated and recommended by FelCor’s board for election by the company’s stockholders at their annual meetings this coming May and in 2017. The two new independent directors will be mutually agreed upon by FelCor and Land and Buildings, and will also be appointed one each to the finance committee and the executive committee of the board. In addition, FelCor’s board will empower the finance committee to review all finance and capital markets activity of the company.
To ensure appropriate board size and reduce average board tenure, FelCor’s board expects that one yet-to-be-determined, long-serving FelCor director will step down later this spring and that another long-serving director, as yet undetermined, will step down before its 2017 annual meeting.
Jonathan Litt, founder and CIO of Land and Buildings, stated, “We are pleased to have been able to work collaboratively with the company to refresh its board. We continue to believe there is significant upside potential at FelCor and are confident that the addition of two directors to the board and on the finance and executive committees will serve the interests of all FelCor stockholders to continue maximizing value.”