Pacholder Moves Against Three LaBarge Board Seats

Pacholder Associates of Cincinnati and three affiliates have acquired 17.8% of LaBarge’s common stock and will attempt to oust three members of the St. Louis-based company’s 10-member board of directors, including the company’s chairman.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pacholder said it is seeking to replace Chairman Pierre L. LaBarge Jr., Senior Vice President Edward J. Nestor and company director Gus G. Casten with its own candidates.

Pacholder’s nominees include Revlon Vice President Samuel N. Levin, Germania Bank Chairman and CEO Edward L. Morris, and Kidder, Peabody & Co. Vice President James J. Zenni Jr.

If the group’s representatives are nominated, it will control four seats on the board. At that time, the group may consider “the sale of some or all of the company’s assets” and changes in its “capital structure, business or corporate structure.”