Sun-Times Media shareholder Davidson Kempner moves forward with plan to reconstitute board

By Lisa Kerner

Charlotte, N.C., Nov. 20 - Sun-Times Media Group Inc. shareholder Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC said it filed a preliminary consent statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission as part of its plan to reconstitute the company's board of directors.

According to Davidson Kempner, it is in Sun-Times' best interests to change the company's leadership at the chief executive officer and board level "by reconstituting the board with new directors who combine deep experience in the publishing space with the rigors of financial restructuring."

The investor wants to reduce the Chicago-based newspaper company's board to five directors from seven. Davidson Kempner also submitted four new director candidates:

• Jeremy L. Halbreich, former president and general manager of the Dallas Morning News;

• Robert A. Schmitz, a partner at Quest Turnaround Advisors;

• Lee Hillman, former chief financial officer of Bally Entertainment Corp. and later the chairman and CEO of Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp.; and

• Michael E. Katzenstein, founder and principal of CXO, LLC, a restructuring and turnaround management firm.

In a letter to Sun-Times shareholders included in a news release, Davidson Kempner said it believes the company "must take dramatic steps to arrest the cash burn rate before it exhausts the remaining liquidity on the balance sheet."

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.