Meeting Scheduled Over Stockholders’ Questions on AME

A special stockholders’ meeting was scheduled Monday at AME Inc. after some holders complained about not being given enough information about the company, including its possible sale, The Times has learned.

Results of the meeting at AME’s Burbank headquarters were not immediately available. But informed sources said the stockholders mainly wanted to know about AME’s reportedly troubled financial condition, whether it has defaulted on any of its debts and the prospects for its sale.

AME declined comment about the meeting, saying it has a policy against publicly discussing its affairs.

AME is Hollywood’s biggest post-production company and provides such services as transferring filmed movies to videotape for mass distribution. The company went private in a $57-million leveraged buyout in 1989 but, according to sources, has been struggling under a heavy debt load ever since amid turmoil in its executive ranks.

Moreover, Andrew M. McIntyre, who founded and ran the company until the buyout, recently made a $25-million bid to buy back the company, sources have said. AME ignored that offer, but the company has hired an investment bank to explore a possible sale.

Among the stockholders demanding the special meeting were three former AME executives who left after Dennis C. Stanfill, a former 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. chairman, took over as AME’s chief executive in June, 1990.

The three are Lawrence J. Berkowitz, whom Stanfill replaced; Larry G. Kingen, former AME president, and Martin Katz, who was executive vice president. Together, the three have about a 40% voting stake in AME, the sources said. They declined comment or could not be reached.

Despite being stockholders, the three contend that AME has rebuffed their efforts to view the company’s financial statements or otherwise get information about its operations, management and ownership, the sources said.