Shareholder Activist Lens Holds Special Meeting for Metromedia International Group Shareholders
PORTLAND, Maine, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Lens Investment Management, LLC, the shareholder activist investment specialist, will hold a meeting for shareholders of Metromedia International Group, Inc. (Amex: MMG), the global communications company founded and chaired by John W. Kluge. The shareholder meeting will take place Wednesday, February 14, at 9 a.m. in New York City's Marriott Marquis Hotel, 1535 Broadway, New York City. Shareholders interested in attending should register by contacting Lens. Press are invited to attend, and should register by contacting Scott Sunshine or Carol Crane at TowersGroup, Lens's public relations counsel.
"Management has failed the MMG shareholder. They won't let a bright light shine on the company's financials or possible financial relationships among officers and subsidiaries," said Richard A. Bennett, Lens's Chief Activism Officer. "There are alarming parallels between MMG today and Metromedia, Inc. in 1984, when John Kluge, its Chairman & CEO, and company executive Stuart Subotnick took the prior Metromedia private at the well-documented expense of investors. Mr. Kluge and Mr. Subotnick have a history of operating to achieve their own financial agenda. They may well be doing it again."
Since last September, Lens's management has made repeated attempts to meet with MMG to discuss the steady destruction in shareholder value and the need to shed non-core assets. The company has refused Lens's requests for a meeting with management or to comply with Lens's November 2000 formal "books and records" demand to examine the company's financial and licensing records to ensure management is operating in the best interests of shareholders.
The company's stock has only been bad news for shareholders since trading began on November 2, 1995. Since then, the stock has failed to close above $18.50 per share, the price set on that date, and has steadily declined, hitting an all-time trading low of $1.90 on December 27, 2000.
Lens has cited MMG's refusal to dispose of its Snapper lawn care division; the departure last November of James Hatt, President and Chief Executive of MMG's Telecommunications Unit; the complexity and opacity of the company's financial reporting; the company's generation of substantial cash flow, not reflected in the stock price; and management's refusal to repurchase common stock, despite substantial cash reserves, as possible indications that MMG is operating outside of the best interests of its shareholders.
In the communications with MMG, Lens has been retained to assist Elliott Associates, L.P., and Elliott International, L.P., institutional investors with a significant position in MMG. Last December, both Elliott Associates and Elliott International filed separate stockholder proposals with MMG, respectively calling for the appointment of an independent, outside board and the right of significant stockholders to call for a special meeting as a means of protecting their rights.
Metromedia International Group, Inc. is a global communications and media company operating telephony and television businesses in Eastern Europe, republics of the former Soviet Union and other emerging markets. The company also owns the lawn and garden equipment manufacturer Snapper, which it has called a "non-core" asset.
Elliott Associates is an institutional investor based in New York, and Elliott International is an institutional investor based in the Cayman Islands. The investment activities of Elliott Associates and Elliott International are under common management.
Lens (http://www.lens-inc.com), founded in 1991 by Robert A.G. Monks as an investment management firm, was among the first fund managers to take an active role in corporate governance. Over the past decade, Lens, which operates no longer as an investment manager, but rather as a specialist in investor activism, has succeeded in increasing the value of shareholders' investment in companies that include Scott Paper, American Express, Eastman Kodak and Pioneer Group.
Please contact Richard A. Bennett, Chief Activism Officer of Lens, 207-775-4296, rbennett@lens-inc.com; or Scott Sunshine, scottsunshine@towerspr.com, or Carol Crane, carolcrane@towerspr.com, 212-354-5020, both of TowersGroup for Lens |
