Sahm Adrangi’s Kerrisdale Capital will nominate an activist slate of directors to run the boutique Morgans Hotel Group, The Post has learned.
“He is making the rounds,” letting shareholders know, sources close to the situation said. His slate will run on the platform of putting the company up for immediate sale.
Morgans will hold its annual meeting on May 14, and shareholders making proxy proposals likely need to do so by the middle of next week.
In a sense, the 32-year-old Iranian-born Canadian has already declared war on real-estate scion Jason Taubman Kalisman, who runs the Ian Schrager-founded Morgans, which owns the fashionable Hudson Hotel. In September, he said he intended to nominate an activist slate.
In a New York Magazine profile, Adrangi said Kalisman was “arrogant but with nothing to be arrogant about.”
“He went to Harvard, so he thinks he’s hot s–t,” Yale graduate Adrangi said of the similarly aged Kalisman.
Adrangi’s Kerrisdale owns a 3.8 percent stake in Morgans.
The feature portrayed Adrangi, who manages a $250 million fund, as potentially the next Carl Icahn.
There recently seemed to be a truce between fellow activist Ron Burkle, Adrangi and Morgans head Kalisman.
Burkle and Adrangi had been pushing for Morgans to sell itself now, while Kalisman had been telling shareholders he wanted to wait a short time to improve earnings before a sale.
This week, Morgans announced it settled all litigation with Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Cos., agreeing to pay him $3 million, minus any money Yucaipa collects from insurance proceeds.
Besides the settlement, Morgans agreed to pay $88 million for some of Yucaipa’s convertible notes.
Still, Burkle owns nearly $100 million of preferred stock and warrants to buy 30 percent of Morgans.
On Tuesday, Morgans shares rose two percent to $8.15.
Adrangi declined to comment.