For a change, merger adds firm to L.A. corporate list. (Wall Street West).IT's nice when a publicly held company actually moves into Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. due to a merger, instead of out -- which, with the exception of the acquisitiveness of Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) is an aerospace and defense conglomerate that is the result of the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company is the third largest defense contractor for the U.S. Corp. and a couple others, has been the usual scenario in recent years. Last week, Steve Kriegsman, president of investment banking shop Kriegsman Group, confirmed that his company has acquired Norcross, Ga.-based CytRx Corp. and moved its headquarters to Los Angeles. "We owned Global Genomics Inc., a private company, and merged it into CytRx Corp.," Kriegsman said. That gave Kriegsman control of the voting shares Voting Shares Shares that give the stockholder the right to vote on matters of corporate policy making as well as who will compose the members of the board of directors. Notes: Different classes of shares, such as preferred stock, sometimes don't allow for voting rights. of CytRx, so he moved the offices here and became the merged company's new chief executive. CytRx, either directly or through minority ownership in other medical research outfits, has a number of drugs or treatments Kriegsman considers promising. The one that has received attention in the stock market is a delivery technology, called "TranzFect," for DNA-based vaccines. TranzFect has been licensed to drug giant Merck & Co., for use in Merck's efforts to develop a vaccine for HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome . "That is our flagship project, and it will be an extraordinary asset if the (HIV/AIDS) vaccine can be brought to market," Kriegsman said. But Wall Street is evidently not giving it much of a chance -- it put a market cap on CytRx of only $7 million (about 60 cents a share) before Kriegsman's acquisition, and that's about what Kriegsman paid to buy the medical research company in a complicated transaction. Back in 1991, CytRx commanded $47 a share. Santa Monica-based Sanli Pastore & Hill, an independent business valuation firm, rendered an opinion that the price was fair to CytRx's shareholders. Contributing columnist columnist, the writer of an essay appearing regularly in a newspaper or periodical, usually under a constant heading. Although originally humorous, the column in many cases has supplanted the editorial for authoritative opinions on world problems. Benjamin Mark Cole Mark Cole is a multi-instrumentalist blues and roots musician based in Gloucester, UK Music Mark primarily writes and performs blues music but also writes and performs music influenced by other American roots music genres such as americana, cajun, zydeco, bluegrass and writes about the local investment community. He can be reached at sevencontinents@mindspring.com. |
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