Park City Mountain's Sunrise Gondola at the Canyons Photo: TownLift//Randi Sidman-Moore

Oasis said the value of Vail's resorts is not fully reflected in the company's current market valuation compared with its peers. The fund said it may explore or propose a review or sale of the company or some of its resorts, including deals it could seek to take part in.

PARK CITY, Utah — An investment fund that owns a sizable piece of Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN), the company that owns and runs Park City Mountain, made its campaign to change the company official Wednesday, Sept. 16. The move could shape how the resort is run and, eventually, who owns it.

Oasis Management, a Hong Kong-based hedge fund, told federal regulators it is no longer just a passive investor in Vail Resorts. Oasis is a known activist investor, meaning it buys large stakes in companies and pushes for change, often by taking its case directly to shareholders. It now wants to put four people on the company’s board of directors, including Park City resident and Olympic ski champion Picabo Street.

A company’s board oversees its top executives and signs off on major decisions, including whether to sell any of its resorts. Vail owns 42 mountain resorts worldwide.

Why Park City should care

Frustration with Vail Resorts has built in Park City for years, with complaints about crowding, aging infrastructure, worker pay, and a ski patrol strike during the 2024-25 season.

Oasis’ stated goals touch many of those same issues. In its filing on Wednesday, the fund said new board members could push Vail to improve the guest experience, pricing and food and beverage, offer easier ways for newcomers to start skiing, add year-round activities and build “stronger partnerships with host mountain communities.”

Oasis also said the value of Vail’s resorts is not fully reflected in the company’s current market valuation compared with its peers. The fund said it may explore or propose a review or sale of the company or some of its resorts, including deals it could seek to take part in.

“The Reporting Persons believe the Issuer controls an irreplaceable portfolio of 42 world-class mountain resorts – a collection of scarce, high-quality assets that, in the Reporting Persons’ view, is not fully reflected in the Issuer’s current valuation relative to its peers.”

What changed Wednesday

Investors who own more than 5% of a public company must report it to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Passive investors file a short form. Investors who want to influence how the company is run must file a longer one, called a Schedule 13D.

Oasis had been filing as a passive investor. On Wednesday, it filed a 13D.

The fund controls 6.2% of Vail’s stock, about 2.2 million shares it bought for roughly $314 million. That is far from control of the company, but large enough that other shareholders pay attention.

How the fight works

Vail shareholders elect the full board each year at an annual meeting, which the company typically holds in early December. Vail has not announced a date for this year’s meeting. Vail’s board will recommend its own candidates. Oasis can ask shareholders to vote for its picks instead, a contest known as a proxy fight.

Oasis has not formally started asking for votes. That step comes when it files a proxy statement with regulators.

Picabo Street and the other nominees

Street, an Olympic gold medalist who co-founded the Picabo Street Academy in Park City, is joined by former Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Chapek, Florida investor M. Ashton Hudson and Salt Lake City venture capitalist Bryce Roberts.

Oasis is paying its nominees. Street, Hudson and Roberts each receive $50,000 for being nominated and another $50,000 once Oasis formally launches its vote campaign. Each must use the after-tax amount to buy Vail stock. Street reported owning no Vail shares.

Chapek receives $100,000 a month to advise Oasis on Vail, and would get a $500,000 forgivable loan to buy Vail stock if elected.

The nominees agreed not to speak publicly about Vail or the campaign without Oasis’ permission.

In a statement to The Park Record on Friday, Street said, “It’s time to make the most of these mountains that we all love so much.”

A local buyer waiting

The pressure from Oasis adds to a campaign much closer to home.

Park City billionaire Matthew Prince, co-founder of the internet company Cloudflare and owner of The Park Record, has spent months publicly urging Vail to sell him Park City Mountain. In June, he told The Colorado Sun he would put roughly $500 million into the resort for new lifts and more snowmaking, share profits with employees and give the community a stake, saying “the town should own part of the resort.”

Vail CEO Rob Katz has said the company has no plans to sell.

Prince told the Vail Daily this summer that activist funds circling Vail had called him, because a local buyer willing to pay for a resort makes their campaigns cheaper to run.

We are in the great game now

With an activist fund pressing for board seats, a local billionaire waiting to buy and a shareholder vote ahead, Vail Resorts has entered its “Game of Thrones” era.