Support Agreement
In connection with the parties’ entry into the Merger Agreement, Belmond Holdings 1 Ltd. (“Belmond Holdings”), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Issuer and owner of all of the outstanding Class B Shares entered into a Support Agreement, dated as of December 13, 2018, with LVMH (the “Support Agreement”). Under the Support Agreement, Belmond Holdings has agreed to attend the Issuer’s shareholder meeting and to vote, or cause to be voted, all of the Class B Shares in favor of the approval of the Merger Agreement at such meeting. The Support Agreement will terminate upon any termination of the Merger Agreement, or if the Issuer’s board of directors changes its recommendation in favor of the Merger Agreement.
Rights Agreement Amendment
In connection with the parties’ entry into the Merger Agreement, the Issuer and Computershare Trust Company N.A. (“Computershare”) entered into Amendment No. 3 to the Amended and Restated Rights Agreement, dated December 13, 2018 (the “Rights Agreement Amendment”), amending the Rights Agreement, dated June 1, 2000, as amended and restated as of April 12, 2007, by and between the Issuer (f/k/a Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.) and Computershare, as rights agent (as amended, the “Rights Agreement”). The effect of the Rights Agreement Amendment is to permit the Merger and the other transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement and the Support Agreement to occur without triggering any distribution or other adverse event to LVMH or its affiliates under the Rights Agreement. In particular, (i) none of LVMH, Holding, Merger Sub or any of their respective affiliates or associates will become an Acquiring Person (as defined in the Rights Agreement) and (ii) neither a Shares Acquisition Date (as defined in the Rights Agreement) or a Distribution Date (as defined in the Rights Agreement) will occur as a result of the announcement, approval, execution, delivery and/or performance of the Merger Agreement or the Support Agreement or the consummation of any of the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger. Additionally, the Rights Agreement Amendment provides that the Rights (as defined in the Rights Agreement) will expire and cease to be exercisable immediately prior to, but contingent on the occurrence of, the Effective Time. In the event that the Merger Agreement is terminated in accordance with its terms, the Rights Agreement Amendment will be of no further force or effect and the Rights Agreement shall remain the same as it existed immediately prior to the execution of the Rights Amendment, subject to ministerial exceptions.
Purchased Class A Shares
In furtherance of the Merger and transactions contemplated by the Merger Agreement, LVMH intends to vote, or cause to be voted, the Purchased Class A Shares in favor of the approval of the Merger Agreement at the Issuer’s shareholder meeting.
Items 4(a)-(j) Generally
Except as set forth in this Schedule 13D or as contemplated by the Merger Agreement and the Support Agreement, neither LVMH nor, to LVMH’s knowledge, any of the persons listed on Annex A, has any present plans or proposals which relate to, or which would result in, any of the transactions described in subparagraphs (a) through (j) of Item 4 of this Schedule 13D.
Additional Information
The foregoing descriptions of the Merger Agreement, the Support Agreement, the Rights Agreement Amendment and the transactions contemplated thereby, including the Merger, do not purport to be complete and are qualified in their entirety by the full text thereof, which are attached as Exhibit 2.1, Exhibit 10.1 and Exhibit 4.1, respectively, to the Current Report on Form8-K filed by the Issuer with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 14, 2018. The Merger Agreement was attached to the Issuer’s Form8-K to provide investors with information regarding its terms. It was not intended to provide any other factual information about the Issuer, LVMH or any other party to the Merger Agreement or any related agreement. In particular, the representations, warranties, covenants and agreements contained in the Merger Agreement, which were made only for purposes of such agreement and as of specific dates, were for the benefit of the parties to the Merger Agreement, may be subject to limitations agreed upon by the parties (including qualifications contained in confidential disclosures, some of which have been made for the purposes of allocating contractual risk between the parties to the Merger Agreement instead of establishing these matters as facts) and may be subject to standards of materiality applicable to the contracting parties that differ from those applicable to investors and security holders. Investors and security holders are not third-party beneficiaries under the Merger Agreement and should not rely on the representations, warranties, covenants and agreements, or any descriptions thereof, as characterizations of the actual state of facts or condition of any party to the Merger Agreement. Moreover, information concerning the subject matter of the representations and warranties may change after the date of the Merger Agreement.