N. Y. Firm Buys Stake in Ventura Entertainment

A New York-based investment partnership has acquired a 7.3% stake in Ventura Entertainment Group Ltd., a struggling North Hollywood television production company.

Network Partners L.P., whose general partner is Equimax Resources Inc., said in a recent U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it purchased 675,000 shares of Ventura Entertainment’s common stock. Alvin Abrams, the principal shareholder of Equimax, owns an additional 402,000 shares, or 4% of the total outstanding.

Abrams is also identified in the SEC filing as the principal of First Philadelphia Corp., a securities broker that was the underwriter for Ventura Entertainment’s initial public offering in 1988.

Abrams and First Philadelphia were sanctioned by the SEC in September, 1990, the filing said, for “free-riding,” a practice in which newly issued stock is withheld so it can be resold later at a higher price. Abrams and his firm were ordered to pay back $6,250 and fined an additional $2,500.