First Executive May Halt Payments: The Los...
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
First Executive May Halt Payments: The Los Angeles-based life insurance company, dragged down by investments in high-risk junk bonds, said it is likely to halt or substantially reduce dividend payments and cut or defer payments on its massive debt. “First Executive believes it will likely be necessary to reduce or substantially eliminate its preferred stock dividend,” the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. News of the latest trouble at First Executive came as the former head of high-yield junk bonds at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Michael Milken, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison for securities-related crimes. First Executive was a major Milken client during the 1980s.
