Ariadne joins forces with Viburnum in Ardent board push

Perth’s Viburnum Funds has backed Ariadne’s call to install Gary Weiss and Kevin Seymour to Ardent’s board.

Incoming Ardent Leisure chief executive Simon Kelly. (Renee Nowytarger/The Australian)

The listed Ariadne has joined forces with Perth-based Viburnum Funds to amp up their case to install a corporate raider and a successful property developer on Ardent’s board.

Together Ariadne (ARA) and Viburnum Funds control 9.86 per cent of Ardent (AAD), a trouble-plagued entertainment group which sports Main Event businesses in the United States and the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast, which has had almost $100m slashed from its value given its slow recovery from last year’s tragedy in which four people died.

Viburnum Funds executive chairman Craig Coleman said he had formed an association with Ariadne with the pair now Ardent’s largest shareholder.

Mr Coleman backs Ariadne’s plan to install Gary Weiss and Kevin Seymour on the Ardent board.

“We own shares in the company because we believe there is potential to improve all the operating businesses in the company, that is a shared view with Gary and Kevin,” Mr Coleman told The Australian.

Ardent is now run by Deborah Thomas, the former editor of the Women’s Weekly, but she is standing aside for incoming chief executive Simon Kelly, who starts in July and today revealed his plans to turn around the company in an exclusive interview with The Australian.