By: Mark Fitzgerald Conrad Black, the controlling stockholder of newspaper publisher Hollinger International, has been blocked from wielding that control by a U.S. court order that expires on Halloween.
Monday, Hollinger International went to Delaware Chancery Court to ask that the injunction be extended until Dec. 31, to allow the company to figure out what to do with the proceeds from the sale of the Daily Telegraph in London and other papers in the U.K.-based Telegraph Group.
In a statement, Hollinger International said it still needed to keep Black from interfering while the company completes its so-called "strategic process" by deciding whether to distribute much of the Telegraph proceeds to shareholders through a dividend or to buy back stock. Some $500 million in debt has been retired since the sale closed, the company said.
But Hollinger International also said it could not complete the distribution of the Telegraph proceeds until it files financial results for 2003 and the first two quarters of 2004 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company statement said that "its financial results will likely be filed with the SEC in November."
Hollinger International has said it would refile a lawsuit in federal court in Chicago, accusing Black and other former company executives of taking some $400 million in improper fees and payments.
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