Boisset Family Estates buys Calif. winery from Japan’s Kirin

Boisset Family Estates, a 48-year-old family business with branches in the U.S. and France, has acquired its first winery in California's Napa Valley, Raymond Vineyard & Cellar, from Japan's Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd., the San Francisco Business Times reported. Jean-Charles Boisset is the company president.

The Raymond family, which has been in the business for 130 years, sold their property to Kirin in 1989 and became managing partners with a managing interest, the article said. Vineyard manager Craig Raymond and president and winemaker Walter Raymond are expected to remain with the property. (Source: San Francisco Business Times, Aug. 10, 2009.)

Posted Monday, August 31, 2009 • Permalink

Huntsman to buy Tronox

Huntsman Corp. has agreed to purchase the bankrupt Tronox Inc., an Oklahoma City maker of titanium dioxide, for $415 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report. After the deal Huntsman would become the second-largest maker of titanium dioxide, a pigment used in whitening.

"The deal is a sign of strength for Huntsman, the Woodlands, Texas-based company that has emerged from a tumultuous period that combined a collapse in demand with a bruising litigation over a busted buyout," the article said.

Huntsman CEO Peter Huntsman told the Journal, "It's much better to be acquiring and growing than selling and shrinking." (Source: Wall Street Journal, Aug. 31, 2009.)

Posted Monday, August 31, 2009 • Permalink

Hoiles family’s Freedom Communications expected to file for Chapter 11

Freedom Communications Inc., the owner of the Orange County Register, more than 30 other daily newspapers and eight TV stations, is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the Wall Street Journal reported. The company has been majority owned by the Hoiles family for more than 70 years and generates about $700 million in annual revenue, the article said.

The company's lenders, which hold about $770 million in debt, are expected to take control of the company, the Journal reported. Two private equity firms acquired a 40% equity stake in the company in 2004 for about $460 million, the article said.

The Hoiles family has been divided for years about what to do with the Irvine, Calif., company. Family members representing about one half of the Hoiles clan sold their stake in the company as part of the recapitalization more than five years ago. The stake of the remaining half likely would be wiped out by a bankruptcy filing...

Struggling with its debt, Freedom about a year ago suspended its dividend, which was the primary source of income for members of the family's fourth generation, many of whom don't have jobs.

For the most part, members of the clan who cashed out no longer have contact with relatives who stuck with the company, according to two family members.

The Journal report noted that the filing "is bound to force some family members to work." (Source: Wall Street Journal, Aug. 31, 2009.)

Posted Monday, August 31, 2009 • Permalink

With divorce pending, Steve and Elaine Wynn sell 2 million shares

Steve Wynn, chief executive of Wynn Resorts Ltd., and his wife, Elaine, have sold 2 million of their shares of common stock in the company, worth $114 million, the Associated Press reported. The report said the couple made the move "to get more cash in anticipation of their pending divorce." According to the article, the shares represent less than 10% of their holdings in the company. Shareholders "overwhelmingly" supported Elaine Wynn for re-election to the company's board at an annual meeting May 5 although the couple had filed divorce papers on March 5, the AP reported. They married in 1963, divorced in 1986 and remarried in 1991, the article said. Tabloids have linked Steve Wynn to another woman. (Source: Associated Press, Aug. 18, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Akio Toyoda announces plan to build sports car

Toyota Motor Corp. president and CEO Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, announced plans to re-enter the sports-car market at an auto industry conference in early August, saying that Toyota aspired "to a higher cause than just building cars and making money," the Financial Times reported.

A New York Times report noted that Toyoda has engineered a management shake-up at the company: "Four of Toyota's five executive vice presidents, the group that now leads the company under Mr. Toyoda, are new to their jobs.... Further, the four newcomers are each in charge of a global region on top of duties within the company."

The New York Times article said that while Toyota dealers and employees praise the energy Toyoda has brought to the company, Toyota faces risks: "Mr. Toyoda's biggest problem, executives and analysts say, is transforming a lineup dotted with mundane-looking vehicles that buyers bought because of their reliability, not because of their style appeal.

"It is a problem shared with Detroit.... Unlike G.M., Ford and Chrysler, however, Toyota cannot reach back to its roots and tap into a DBA of sexy sheet metal.

"And it faces a difficult balancing act: become too aggressive, and Toyota risks chasing off the practical-minded consumers who have been its base for a half-century."

Toyota reportedly plans to shut down production at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont, Calif., formerly a joint venture with General Motors. The venture "was the brainchild of Mr. Toyoda's father, Shoichiro Toyoda, and paved the company's way into the American car market in 1984," the New York Times reported. (Sources: Financial Times, Aug. 6, 2009; New York Times, Aug. 5, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Anil Ambani launches ad campaign criticizing India’s government and his brother

Anil Ambani has launched an ad campaign accusing India's petroleum ministry of favoring Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), controlled by his brother, Mukesh, in a feud between RIL and Anil's Reliance Natural Resources over gas prices. "Is this in public or national interest?" asks the ad in national newspapers. The Times of India noted in a report that it's unusual for Indian companies to issue ads criticizing the government. Anil's ad says NTPC Ltd., a public-sector power generation company, will suffer if it pays RIL's prices.

The Times of India reported that NTPC officials' opinions on the ad campaign were divided: "One group of senior executives seemed happy that the ad has created pressure on the utility's management to go to the apex court for a lower gas price; another group was distinctly uncomfortable at being dragged into a corporate war between two brothers."

The case is scheduled to be debated in India's Supreme Court on Sept. 1. (Source: Times of India, Aug. 18, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Former Samsung chairman guilty, receives suspended sentence in retrial

The Seoul High Court found Former Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun Hee guilty of breach of duty for causing 22.7 billion won ($18 million) in losses at Samsung SDS, an information technology company, Bloomberg reported. The court found that Lee knew the company illegally sold convertible bonds to his son Lee Jae Yong in 1999 in an effort to transfer control of the group. Lee received a three-year prison sentence, which was suspended for five years, the Bloomberg report said. He was fined 110 billion won ($89 million) for causing the loss and evading taxes.

According to Bloomberg, "The judge said he opted not to imprison Lee, partly because of his role in helping the company's sales and profit grow. Suspending the jail term highlights the tendency by South Korean courts to offer clemency to heads of the nation's family-run business groups for white-collar crimes, according to shareholder activists...."

The Bloomberg report noted that in May, South Korea's Supreme Court sent the case to the High Court for retrial because an earlier ruling had acquitted Lee. In a separate breach of duty case, the Supreme Court had upheld the lower court's not-guilty verdict. In two previous trials by lower courts, Lee was convicted of tax evasion and received a suspended three-year prison sentence and a fine. Neither Samsung Group nor prosecutors will appeal the latest verdict, which closes the case after a 13-year legal battle, Yahoo News reported. (Sources: Bloomberg, Aug. 13, 2009; Yahoo News, Aug. 21, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Italian tax officials investigating Agnelli estate for undeclared assets

Italian tax authorities are investigating the estate of Gianni Agnelli, the late chairman of Fiat, following his daughter’s charges that she did not receive part of her inheritance because he had 1 billion euros in undeclared assets in Swiss bank accounts, the Financial Times reported. The 2007 allegations by Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen have “exposed the internal dynamics of Italy’s wealthy industrial dynasty,” the FT report said. Her mother, Marella Agnelli, denied the charges. Agnelli de Pahlen is Gianni Agnelli’s only surviving child. Her son John Elkann is Fiat’s vice chairman.

"The investigation is an acute embarrassment for the Agnelli family, which is no stranger to publicity but had managed to keep the extent of its wealth secret until Mr. Agnelli’s death," said the FT.

A spokesman for Exor, the Agnelli family holding company, told the FT that the investigation doesnot involve other Agnelli family members or any family-controlled company. (Source: Financial Times, Aug. 13, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Busch relative and investor form a new brewing company

Billy Busch, an uncle of former Anheuser-Busch Inc. CEO August Busch IV, has joined with St. Louis investor John Timmermann to form Busch Timmermann Brewing LLC.

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, "Busch, 49, is a son of the late August Busch Jr. and a half-brother of former Anheuser-Busch Cos. chairman August Busch III. He and two of his brothers, Adolphus Busch IV and Andy Busch, were investors in Silver Eagle Distributors, now the largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the country. In early 1991, each sold his 17 percent stake in the company for an undisclosed amount, according to a Silver Eagle spokeswoman."

Billy Busch, who did not work at Anheuser-Busch, is not subject to a non-compete agreement with the giant brewer formerly owned by his family and received August Busch III's blessing before forming his company, the article said. The report noted that Busch has maintained a relatively low profile for the past 15 years but was involved in a notorious barroom brawl and a child custody fight that reached the Missouri Supreme Court. (Source: St. Louis Business Journal, Aug. 14, 2009.)

Posted Thursday, August 27, 2009 • Permalink

Deal finalized to integrate Porsche into VW; Qatar Holding to take a stake

The dispute between Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech and his cousin Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche, appeared to heading toward resolution as the two companies agreed to a deal in which Volkswagen will pay up to 3.3 billion euros ($4.7 billion) for 42% of Porsche, the Financial Times reported. In another twist in what an analyst described to the FT as "the world's most complex merger," Qatar Holding will pay 7 billion euros ($9.9 billion) for a 10% voting stake in Porsche and will acquire a 17% voting stake in VW. VW will also buy Europe's largest vehicle dealership, Porsche Holding Salzburg, which the FT called "a move that will amount to a rescue of debt-laden Porsche." The deal is due to be completed in 2011. The Wall Street Journal reported that VW will raise 4 billion euros ($5.7 billion) in capital to complete the deal. The Journal report noted that if the merger doesn't occur, Qatar Holding may resell its stake in Porsche to the families. Piech, a large shareholder in both companies, had sought to reunite the two firms. Porsche had tried unsuccessfully to take over VW and incurred high debt. According to VW's CFO, the Porsche and Piech families might end up with 30% to 40% of the merged group; VW's home state of Lower Saxony will also be a shareholder, the FT reported. (Source: Financial Times, Aug. 13, 2009 and Aug. 14, 2009; Wall Street Journal, Aug. 17, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Three members of Philadelphia-area real estate family die in plane-helicopter crash

Steven Altman, 60; his brother Daniel, 49, and his nephew Douglas, 15, were killed Aug. 8 when a single-engine airplane, piloted by Steven Altman, collided with a sightseeing helicopter over the Hudson River. Steven and Daniel Altman were principals in the Altman Group, founded in the 1940s as a carpentry and drywall contractor by their father, 87-year-old David Altman, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The Altman Group now includes firms involved in development, construction and management of residential properties in Eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and New Jersey, according to the report. "The Altmans have been an integral part of the growth and redevelopment of Philadelphia," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told the Inquirer. The family was highly regarded for its philanthropy on behalf of many causes. Steven and Daniel Altman specialized in the acquisition side of the business, while a surviving brother and partner, Brett, has expertise in construction, the Inquirer noted in an earlier report. A fourth partner, non-family member Bob Bluth, joined the company in 1983 and was previously the company's outside accountant. The Inquirer reported that the company's succession plan provided for the surviving principals to control and own the companies and for the estates to maintain a stake in the real estate partnerships. "We're a formidable company, and we're in business," Bluth told the Inquirer. But Brett Altman said, "I start the day off very sad." (Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 10, 2009; Aug. 11, 2009; Aug. 14, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Founder’s granddaughter replaces CEO at Rodale

Maria Rodale, granddaughter of the founder of Rodale Inc., will replace Steven Murphy as the company's president and CEO on Sept. 1, the Allentown, Pa., Morning Call reported. Murphy joined Rodale in 2000 as COO and became CEO in 2002. Maria Rodale has been with the company since 1987. She was named to the company's board in 1991 and succeeded her mother, Ardath, as chairman in 2007, the Morning Call article said. Rodale publishes Prevention, Men's Health, Organic Gardening and other healthy-living magazines. It also publishes books, including Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and The South Beach Diet. Under Murphy, the company experienced the most profitable period in its 69-year history, the article said. It noted, however, that Rodale has been hurt by a drop in advertising and reduced its workforce by 10% in November. (Source: Morning Call, July 30, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Continental ousts CEO and chairman to resolve dispute with Schaeffler’s family owners

Karl-Thomas Neumann, CEO of giant European auto parts maker Continental AG, and Rolf Koerfer, Continental's chairman, will leave their posts in an effort to resolve a dispute with the family owners of Schaeffler Group, Continental's majority owner, Bloomberg reported. Neumann will be replaced immediately by Elmar Degenhart, head of Schaeffler's automotive unit, while Koerfer will step down after the company has found his replacement and a permanent CFO; he will remain on the board and serve on its chairman's committee, according to the Bloomberg report. The dispute was fueled when Neumann defied the Schaeffler Group by pushing through a share sale of as much as 1.5 billion euros, which will significantly dilute Schaeffler's holding, according to the Financial Times. Schaeffler "was strongly opposed to a capital boost as the highly indebted group lacks the money to buy further shares," the FT reported. Neumann's plan to raise capital "was seen as an assault on Schaeffler," the FT article said. An earlier Bloomberg report noted that Neumann "would be Continental's second leader in less than a year to lose his job in a dispute over strategy with Schaeffler, which racked up 11 billion euros of debt from buying the car-parts maker." Schaeffler's banks have threatened to take over the company, the FT reported. Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler, Schaeffler Group's owner, had advocated Degenhart as Neumann's replacement. (Sources: Financial Times, July 31, 2009; Bloomberg, July 31, 2009 and Aug. 12, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Pritzker clan’s Hyatt Hotels registers for public offering

Hyatt Hotels Corp., owned by Chicago's Pritzker family, has registered for its current shareholders to sell up to $1.15 billion of stock in an initial public offering, the Chicago Tribune reported. Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Madrone Capital Partners, which is affiliated with Wal-Mart Stores chairman Rob Walton, each invested $500 million for an undisclosed equity-linked stake and a seat on Hyatt's board, the Tribune article said. "The Pritzkers are in the middle of a decade-long process to split up the family's assets among 11 adult cousins by 2011," the Tribune reported. "The agreement, reached after intense internal feuding, calls for regular cash distributions to be made to each party. A trio of family members running the core empire on a day-to-day basis has been engaged in a delicate balancing act, to expand the family holdings while finding ways to divide the assets and raise cash for the distributions." (Source: Chicago Tribune, Aug. 5, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Cablevision will spin off Madison Square Garden unit

Cablevision Systems Corp. announced that its board approved plans to spin off its Madison Square Garden unit and sports assets, including the New York Knicks and Rangers and the MSG Network, the Wall Street Journal reported. James Dolan will serve as executive chairman of MSG and remain CEO of Cablevision. His father, Charles Dolan, will remain chairman of Cablevision, the article said. "Investors have complained about the Dolans investing cash flows from Cablevision's cable business in MSG's operations ... which have done little to drive returns for shareholders," the Journal reported. (Source: Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 • Permalink

Ritz Camera is sold to its CEO and investors

Former CEO David Ritz and a team of investors, RCI Acquisition LLC, won a 25-hour auction to regain control of Ritz Camera Centers Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Ritz and his team beat out rival bidders who wanted to liquidate the firm, the report said. The offer includes $16 million in cash, $7.5 million in a short-term note financed by the seller, $17 million in assumed liabilities and $10 million in real estate available for sale. There are 375 Ritz Camera and Camera Shop stores, down from 800 at the chain's peak; some of these will close, the article said. J. Scott Victor, an investment banker with SSG Capital Advisors LLC in West Conshohocken, Pa., who also represented the Boscov family and its investors in ther rescue of the Boscov's department store chain, told the Inquirer Ritz's target is to operate 263 stores, and the minimum under the purchase agreement is 164 stores. The Ritz sale was approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on July 23. David Ritz's family founded the chain in Atlantic City, N.J., 80 years ago. (Source: Philadelphia Inquirer, July 23, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 04, 2009 • Permalink

Ronald Lauder is replaced by his daughter on Estee Lauder board

Jane Lauder, 36, a granddaughter of the founder of Estee Lauder Cos., has joined the company's board, the Wall Street Journal reported. She succeeds her father, 65-year-old Ronald Lauder. Jane Lauder is senior vice president and general manager of the company's brand. Her older sister, Aerin Lauder, senior vice president and global creative director for the Estee Lauder Brand, also serves on the board, which reserves two board seats for each of founder Estee Lauder's two sons, according to the report. Ronald Lauder's brother, chairman emeritus Leonard Lauder, holds a board seat along with his son, executive chairman William Lauder. The Journal article said that Ronald Lauder continues to have 9.4% of the voting power through his shareholdings; Leonard has 48.3%. Meanwhile, in an interview with the Financial Times, William Lauder said that even though non-family member Fabrizio Freda is now CEO, a family member might succeed Freda. "I have a handful of relatives who are in the business," he told the FT. "I certainly hope over time as everyone develops their skills and abilities career-wise they would have the opportunity. But quite honestly, this is a meritocracy." (Sources: Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2009; Financial Times, July 22, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 04, 2009 • Permalink

Persian Gulf banks will seek better corporate governance from family firms

Persian Gulf banks -- 30 in all, two-thirds of which are based in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- have $9.6 billion in exposure to two troubled Saudi family-held conglomerates, Saad Group and Ahmad Hamad Al Gosaibi & Brothers Co. (AHAB), the Wall Street Journal reported. Both companies have defaulted on debts and are restructuring, the article said. Banks in the region have started reviewing their lending requirements to family firms, which had a reputation as conservative and reliable borrowers but have been affected by the global financial crisis, the Journal reported. A Deutsche Bank executive in the region told the Journal, "We can say that what happened in Saudi Arabia was an eye-opener to family businesses in the Gulf." According to the article, more than 80% of the businesses in the Middle East are family-run or family-owed, and about $1 trillion in family-owned assets is expected to pass to the successor generation in the next five to ten years. An executive at the National Bank of Kuwait told the Journal, "We want more transparency and better adherence to corporate governance." But Abdulrahman Al Zamil, chairman of Saudi operations at Saudi family firm Al Zamil Group, told the Journal he blamed the banks' situation on "the ignorance of financial analysts and the bankers who got too loose." (Source: Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 04, 2009 • Permalink

Anil Ambani accuses his brother of denying energy to consumers

In the latest twist in the feud between brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani over the breakup of their family's Reliance group of companies, Anil wrote a letter to India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to stop government ministries from allegedly intervening in favor of Mukesh. Anil's letter accused Mukesh of delays in providing energy to Indian consumers and industry, the Financial Times reported. Anil's Reliance Natural Resources is trying to enforce a 2005 family agreement under which Mukesh's Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) would sell gas from the Krishna-Godavari area off India's east coast at a significantly lower price than that set by the Indian government. The government has said it has ownership of the gas under a production-sharing agreement and that it must approve the price before any sale, the Wall Street Journal noted. India's Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in September. In the July 15 letter, according to the FT report, Anil wrote, "Major power cuts, especially in north India, have become commonplace, causing grave hardship to hundreds of millions of consumers -- sadly, all a result of RIL's corporate greed." At an annual shareholders' meeting July 28, Anil criticized India's petroleum and national gas ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported. "This bogey of sovereign ownership is being raised with the sole purpose of attempting to bail out RIL and help them renege on their contractual commitments," Anil said at the shareholders' meeting, according to the Journal. (Source: Financial Times, July 21, 2009; Wall Street Journal, July 29, 2009.)

Posted Tuesday, August 04, 2009 • Permalink