Sun Capital claims victory over FBI
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, May 5, 2008
St. Louis — Sun Capital Partners claimed victory last week in its proxy fight with Furniture Brands International, saying shareholders elected its three nominees to the board of directors "by a substantial margin."
Sun Capital based its claim on an estimate made by proxy solicitation firm D.F. King at the conclusion of Thursday's session of the annual shareholders meeting.
In a statement Thursday, Furniture Brands said it had adjourned last week's annual meeting and will reconvene May 20, when it will announce results of the proxy vote. "Because of the contested nature of this year's annual meeting, a final reconciliation of the election will require authentication by an independent inspector of elections," the company said.
Sun Capital, which is FBI's second-largest shareholder, said the vote means nominees Alan Schwartz, Ira Kaplan and T. Scott King will get seats on the eight-member FBI board. It wasn't immediately clear which FBI nominees were ousted, but Sun Capital had been urging shareholders to vote against Richard Loynd, Albert Suter and Katherine Bell.
"The election of Sun Capital's nominees is a victory for all Furniture Brands shareholders," said Jason Bernzweig, a Sun Capital vice president. "Today's results demonstrate shareholders' desire for constructive change at Furniture Brands, and we are gratified by their support for our nominees."
The proxy fight between the company and Sun Capital, which owns 9.45% of FBI's stock, has been ongoing for about a month, and became increasingly contentious as the May 1 annual meeting grew near.
Each side accused the other of not acting in the best interests of shareholders.
