Suit Filed to Block Marvel’s Perelman

A Marvel Entertainment Group shareholder filed suit Wednesday to block controlling shareholder Ronald Perelman’s $350-million plan to buy 410 million new shares of stock for about 85 cents each.

In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court, shareholder Steve Grossbard said financier Perelman’s plan would unfairly dilute the value of the 101 million shares currently outstanding. Public stockholders’ interest in Marvel would fall from about 20% to 4%, the lawsuit claimed. Marvel shares would be worth about $1.70 each, analyst Phelps Hoyt of KDP Investment Advisors said.

The suit claimed that Perelman, chairman and a director at Marvel, exercises control over the firm and its other directors, rendering the board incapable of reaching a fair decision on Perelman’s proposal.