Phoenix Group Sells Resdel to Company Director

Phoenix Group International Inc. said Tuesday that it has sold its controlling interest in financially troubled Resdel Industries to a company owned by a Phoenix director.

The management buyout will give Bruce G. Rossiter 57% of Resdel, which makes electronics-communications equipment.

Terms of the deal call for Rossiter to pay Phoenix $1 million out of future Resdel profits.

“There’s a nice opportunity to resurrect a 40-year-old company, (benefiting) its creditors and shareholders,” Rossiter said.

He declined to discuss his turnaround plans in detail.

Resdel posted huge losses in 1988 and 1989 as it tried to expand its business through acquisitions. More than 100 workers were laid off at Resdel and its Sanbar Corp. subsidiary in Irvine. A money-losing defense contracting unit was sold.

Rossiter, a former acting president of Phoenix, said the sale of the defense unit enabled Resdel to concentrate on its telecommunications markets. Resdel presently has about 20 employees, he said.

Phoenix, based in Irvine, is a computer manufacturer whose subsidiary, American PC, is involved in a joint venture with the Soviet Union to supply six million personal computers to Russian schools.