Steinberg to Try to Oust Tiger’s Board : L.A. Firm Takes No Action on Reliance Request for 4 Seats
Financier Saul P. Steinberg disclosed Friday that he will try to oust the board of directors of Tiger International at the company’s annual meeting May 23.
Los Angeles-based Tiger International, parent of Flying Tiger Line, said its board had taken no action at a regular meeting Thursday on a request by Steinberg’s Reliance Group for four seats on Tiger’s board.
Steinberg and Tiger Chairman Wayne M. Hoffman previously had held preliminary discussions that both sides characterized as “friendly.”
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Reliance Financial Services, a subsidiary of Reliance Group that owns a 17.8% stake in Tiger, said it “expects to solicit proxies to elect its nominees to fill (Tiger’s) entire board of directors.”
“Clearly the board’s failure to take action is tantamount to a rejection of what we thought was a reasonable request on the part of the company’s major shareholder,” a Reliance spokesman said. “We do not believe that this is in the best interests of Tiger or its shareholders.”
Nine-Member Board
A Tiger spokeswoman declined to comment on Reliance’s plan.
Tiger’s nine-member board of directors includes former President Gerald R. Ford and Los Angeles lawyer Charles T. Manatt, former Democratic Party chairman.
Five of the directors have served on the Tiger board for more than 15 years, and one of those, Houston Rehrig, president of Rehrig International, has been on the board for 37 years. The directors range in age from 47 to 76.
Reliance’s spokesman said the company will file its proxy materials and slate of directors next week with the SEC.
Reliance began accumulating its stake in Tiger in 1980. It threatened to take over Tiger in 1982, shortly after Tiger’s financial situation began to decline because of the recession, rising fuel prices and high interest rates.
Steinberg called Tiger’s management “ineffective,” and the two companies traded lawsuits, but the takeover attempt never materialized.
In Tiger’s recently published annual report, Hoffman said that Tiger International “is back on the road to sustained profitability.”
Between 1981 and 1983, Tiger suffered losses totaling $375.7 million. It pared its operations and reported profits of $44.2 million from continuing operations last year. However, write-offs late in the year resulted in a net loss of $88.9 million.
