NII Board Slate Elected Easily Over Leucadia’s

National Intergroup Inc. said Wednesday that Leucadia National’s bid last week for four seats on its board of directors was defeated by a margin of nearly two to one.

Leucadia, a New York insurance and financial-services company that holds 9% of NII’s 20 million common shares outstanding, said it wanted board representation to promote a plan to sell the company’s assets and distribute proceeds to shareholders.

Leucadia said Tuesday that it would seek regulatory approval to acquire up to 24.9% of NII’s stock.

An independent audit of shares voted through last Wednesday’s shareholders meeting shows that management’s slate of directors won election with at least 10.2 million votes each, compared to no more than 5.79 million votes each for Leucadia’s candidates, NII said Wednesday in a printed statement. The audit shows NII won by a margin of 1 3/4 to 1.

Excluding the 1.8 million shares voted by Leucadia, the challenger lost by a margin of 2 1/2 to 1, NII said.