NYSE Gives Hollinger Int'l. 3-Month Reprieve On Stock Delisting

By: Mark Fitzgerald The New York Stock Exchange is giving Hollinger International an additional three months to file its long-overdue annual report for 2003, easing the threat of imminent delisting of its stock, the Chicago-based newspaper publisher said.

Hollinger, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times and community papers in the Chicago and Canadian markets, said the stock exchange on New Year's Eve granted the firm until March 31 to file its Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2003, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said the exchange has warned it that if it fails to meet this latest deadline, "the NYSE will move forward with the initiation of suspension procedures" -- pulling the stock from the Big Board.

Hollinger International has blamed the long delay in listing its 2003 10-K -- and its failure to file on time required quarterly reports for the first nine months of 2004 -- on an outside auditor's need to review the information from the 513-page report on the year-long internal investigation that alleges several top executives, including controlling stakeholder Conrad Black, the company's ousted chairman, "looted" the publishing firm of $400 million over the course of seven years.

In its latest statement, Hollinger said it expects to file the 2003 report with the SEC "no later than mid-January, 2005," and expects to "become current on its quarterly reports for 2004 within approximately two months" after that filing.

In a separate statement, Hollinger Inc. -- the Black-controlled holding company that owns a controlling stake in Hollinger International -- issued a status update that warned even the filing of the Hollinger International financial data may not be sufficient for it to get current on its own long-overdue reports to Ontario, Canada, securities authorities.

Hollinger Inc. said the filing of those reports is "a necessary but not sufficient condition to permit Hollinger [Inc.] to complete and file its financial statements for the same periods, as the completion and audit of Hollinger's financial statements will require a level of cooperation from Hollinger International and its auditors which is still in negotiation."

Hollinger Inc. also said a court-appointed inspector charged with investigating any deals by current or past company insiders would be making an interim report at hearings scheduled for Jan. 6 and 7. "Hollinger and its staff have given their full, unfettered and unrestricted assistance to the inspector in carrying out its duties, including access to all files and electronic data," the company said in a statement.

The holding company also announced that a report on its corporate governance practices and procedures, being conducted by two Canadian lawyers, would be presented to the Hollinger Inc. board this month.