ICN Shareholder Demands Documents

A dissident ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. shareholder asked the Costa Mesa drug maker Tuesday to turn over documents related to a planned restructuring, saying it needs the information to investigate possible mismanagement and wrongdoing by the company.

Special Situations Partners Inc., which owns about 8.5% of ICN, including options, said in a letter to ICN that it wants memos, presentations and other documents related to the restructuring and reports from ICN’s outside advisors.

Special Situations is trying to turn up the pressure on ICN to back away from a plan announced in June to sell a minority stake in its Ribapharm hepatitis-drug unit to the public and spin off part of another unit.

The investor, which has proposed its own reorganization, wants to determine whether the restructuring plan and its approval by the ICN board “were undertaken for the purpose of entrenching the existing management of the company,” the letter said.

ICN said in a statement that it received the letter and will “provide all reasonable and appropriate information” required by law.