Firm’s Annual Meeting Draws Rare Visitor

Northview Chairman Ivan Boesky surprised a few people with his appearance at Northview’s annual meeting.

The surprise wasn’t what Boesky said or did--he conducted a perfunctory annual meeting, found time to hawk his new book, and declined to make any substantive comments on his future acquisition plans.

The surprise was that Boesky was there. It was the first annual meeting Boesky has attended at Northview (formerly Vagabond Hotels) since joining the board in 1978.

“I’ve been here five years in a row, and I always end up asking where Ivan Boesky is,” Irving Katz, an analyst at San Diego Securities, told Boesky.

“I’m very happy to be here,” responded Boesky, who is better known as a New York-based risk arbitrager than as board chairman of San Diego-based Northview.

After Friday’s meeting, Boesky said he would be making “a couple of smaller acquisitions” in the financial services industry within three to six months, although he refused to identify them.

Boesky was equally guarded when asked about long-term acquisitions, saying, “Be patient and you’ll start to see some very interesting things happen.”

Boesky said “Merger Mania,” his new book, was a natural follow-up to his business teaching at New York and Columbia universities.

Boesky said the takeover wave he helped start will crest during the next five years with “the greatest explosion in (U.S. corporate) history.”