Bondholders Bid to Replace Marvel Board

Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. bondholders said Friday that they plan to replace the company’s board Tuesday with a slate of nine people, including financier Carl Icahn and comic-book veteran Winston Fowlkes.

Bondholders, who have offered to invest $365 million in the bankrupt comic-book publisher through a rights offering, are replacing the board because “immediate action is necessary to save the company,” they said in a letter to Marvel’s attorney.

Marvel controlling shareholder Ronald Perelman earlier this month agreed to drop his plan to pump money into the company and consider an alternative proposed by Icahn. Chase Manhattan Bank, which supported Perelman’s plan, last week urged Marvel’s board not to resign and hand over control to bondholders.

In February, Marvel bondholders won a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court allowing them to foreclose on and vote Marvel shares. The bondholders said that while they have tried to help Marvel reorganize its operations without replacing the board, Marvel has resisted such action, the letter said.

New York-based Marvel, in response, said its secured creditors plan to oppose Icahn’s efforts to take control of the board “and will seek the aid of the court to compel Mr. Icahn to present a specific plan for the company’s reorganization.”

Marvel bondholders reiterated their support for the $365-million rights offering and plan to present details of a new plan of reorganization to Marvel’s creditors and shareholders within 30 days.

Marvel filed for bankruptcy in December because of a lack of cash from poor sales of its comic books, which include “Spider Man.”