Maui Land
shareholders
OK Case stake

Star-Bulletin staff

Shareholders of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. have approved America Online Inc. Chairman Stephen Case's $39.2 million purchase of a 41.2 percent stake in the Kahului-based company.

At a special meeting yesterday in Kahului, 87 percent of common stock shareholders voted to approve Case's purchase, Maui Land & Pineapple said.

Last month, Case agreed to buy 2,962,036 shares at $13.25 each from the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc. and related organizations. The stock transaction is expected to close within two weeks.

Yesterday's approval was assured since more than enough votes were already guaranteed by the seller of the stock and another major shareholder, the Cameron family.

Those two shareholders provided a 58 percent majority. Under Hawaii Control Share Acquisition Act, a simple majority of shareholders needed to approve the purchase.

Word of the deal early last month sent the company's shares soaring. The shares, which have since traded in the $18-to-$20 range, closed up 25 cents at $19.87 in trading on the American Stock Exchange today.

Case, a 1976 graduate of Punahou Schools, was born and raised in Hawaii and is the son of prominent Hawaii attorney Daniel Case.

Case and the Cameron family have entered into a share-purchase agreement giving them first right of refusal to an equal number of each other's shares should they decide to sell their stock, according to the proxy.