Ardent Leisure has backtracked on its previous opposition and appointed dissident shareholder Ariadne's Gary Weiss and Brad Richmond to the board, averting the need for a public and uncomfortable showdown at a shareholder meeting planned for Monday.

As reported by The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column earlier on Sunday, the owner of Dreamworld theme park said that the board's ability to execute its strategy and improve value for shareholders was the most important outcome and that after further discussion with Ariadne, the 10.9 per cent shareholder would cancel the extraordinary general meeting it had called for Monday and that its two nominees would join the Ardent board immediately.