New Owners Take Over Wickes; Sigoloff Resigns
The new owners of Wickes Cos. took over Thursday as departing Chairman Sanford C. Sigoloff, star of the Builder’s Emporium commercials, made a quiet exit from the company.
Sigoloff, whose stern voice could be heard on radio commercials Thursday morning, resigned as chairman, chief executive and a director of the Santa Monica company he painstakingly rescued from bankruptcy only to see it sold to others.
In his place was a new management team installed by WCI Holdings, the New York investment firm that agreed in October to buy the Wickes conglomerate for $538.9 million. The agreement came after a management bid by Sigoloff and others collapsed.
“There is a change of control today, we are now responsible,” said James R. Birle, a partner of the Blackstone Group, which together with Wasserstein, Perella & Co., formed WCI Holdings to buy Wickes. The change of control came as WCI completed its cash and securities offer for the firm’s outstanding shares.
In a telephone interview from New York, Birle said WCI Holdings would reduce the size of Wickes’ corporate staff in Santa Monica, transferring more responsibilities to subsidiaries and selling much of its retail business.
Sigoloff, who was said to be in New York for a meeting, has been unavailable for interviews since the agreement was announced in October. Birle said Sigoloff plans to pursue personal interests. “There had been talk of a clean break with a change of control, although Sandy has been extremely helpful and thoughtful in effecting the transition in the last six weeks.”
Sigoloff, who will no longer star in commercials, leaves the company with a severance package, or “golden parachute,” of $5.8 million.
Designees of WCI Holdings now make up a majority of the six-member Wickes board. Edmund M. Kaufman, a partner of Irell & Manella, and Peter B. Sweet, a financial consultant, are the only previous Wickes directors to continue on the new board.
Birle, a former senior vice president of General Electric, and Robert B. McKeon, 34, managing director of Wasserstein Perella, became co-chairmen of WCI Holdings and Wickes. Birle, 52, said in the interview: “I become chief executive officer today. I will be focusing my energies primarily on continuing operations as well as the changing relationships between the Santa Monica office and operations.”
The aim is to make the operating units more self-sufficient, he said.
Wickes had said previously that there would be some staff reductions at the corporate headquarters after the first of the year. Birle declined to speculate what those reductions might be but said: “There will be a downsizing of Santa Monica over the next several months, some consolidations of some functions of Santa Monica. Since we intend to provide the operating units with greater autonomy . . . they will be taking on a bigger role of the management of their people. Eventually down the line, they will assume responsibility for possible financing of their pension programs.”
Birle, who will work out of New York and Santa Monica, said WCI does not plan to phase out the Santa Monica headquarters office completely, which will continue to be responsible for the corporate functions such as taxes, accounting, public reporting, compliance and legal.
McKeon, 34, will concentrate on the divestiture program, which will include previously disclosed plans to sell its retail chains.
