Word: lebow
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MIAMI: Bennett LeBow has coughed up another one of tobacco's dirty little secrets. The owner of the Liggett Group (Chesterfields, L&M, Lark, Eve), who was the first industry leader to admit to tobacco's ills when he crossed the party line in March, says he had been thinking about going public for years, and that $10 million a year from big brother Philip Morris helped keep him quiet. In 1995, with tobacco companies embroiled in a massive suit with state attorneys general, Philip Morris came knocking on the door of his financially troubled company. The larger firm said...
...Philadelphia insurance man, LeBow earned an engineering degree at Drexel University and launched his own computer company. A few years later, he had to rescue it with a financial restructuring. In short order, bailouts became his business, backed by the infamous junk bonds of Michael Milken in his heyday...
...LeBow is a reformed smoker, but he is not a reformed capitalist. In the 1980s, for example, LeBow made noise about a possible takeover of cigarette maker American Brands. He lost his resolve but found a profit, making $30 million when he surprised other investors by selling the stock. He made one of his biggest killings early this decade. LeBow had bought the Western Union money-transfer business in 1987, and watched his company sink into bankruptcy in 1991. Then, amazingly enough, he managed to find a buyer for the business a couple of years ago, which allowed...
...proxy fight in 1995-96--in which LeBow proposed to split the company into two pieces, the Nabisco Brands food group and the R.J. Reynolds tobacco firm--was ultimately rejected by skeptical stockholders. "I think it was...an issue of character," said tobacco-industry analyst Ellen Baras at the time. "I think there are people who would support a spin-off of Nabisco, but not by LeBow." One of the prime factors was LeBow's dubious reputation as a manager. In 1994 his own shareholders had sued him, claiming he had taken millions of dollars in improper loans; LeBow settled...
...avid scuba diver, LeBow has enjoyed the tycoon life-style to the hilt, operating from Florida's millionaire ghetto on Fisher Island. During the late 1980s, he chartered a jet to fly dozens of friends to a multimillion-dollar party in London to celebrate the launch of his private yacht, modeled after Queen Victoria's. He reportedly gave guests gold coins bearing a likeness of himself wearing a Lord Nelson hat. He has sold off some of his lavish baubles in recent years, but his profligate reputation remains a flaw. In the RJR fight, opponents delighted in propagating the slogan...