Group dislikes Station buyout bid.

LAS VEGAS -- A Washington, D.C.-based investment group affiliated with organized labor said Thursday it believes the management-led proposed buyout of Station Casinos undervalues the company and should be rejected by its board of directors.

CtW Investment Group, which is affiliated with a federation of labor unions representing 6 million members that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005, thought an offer of $82 a share by Fertitta Colony Partners doesn't reflect Station Casinos' vast real estate holdings in Las Vegas and the potential value of future casino earnings and tribal gaming management contracts.

Fertitta Colony Partners includes members of the Fertitta family, including Station Casinos Chairman Frank Fertitta III and company President Lorenzo Fertitta, who took the casino operator public in 1993.

CtW Investment Group, which works with union-sponsored pension funds and public employee pension funds with combined control of more than 2.6 million shares of Station Casinos, believes the company is worth more than $97 a share.

"In our view, the proposed $82 offer by Fertitta Colony Partners would allow the insiders of the company to unfairly capture the value of (the company's) investments at the expense of long-term shareholders," William Patterson, executive director of CtW, said in a letter to the nonmanagement members of the Station Casino board of directors.

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