Associated Press Published Feb 26, 2002
Another group hopes to force Federated Department Stores to stop dismantling Fingerhut.
The Alaska Ironworkers Pension Trust filed the lawsuit in state district court in Minneapolis today.
The group aruges that Fingerhut's parent company has failed to maximize shareholder value by taking steps to liquidate Fingerhut before trying to sell it as an intact company.
Federated Department Stores announced last month that it would close Fingerhut if it could not find a buyer. Since then, there have been two offers for the catalog company, one with a signed non-binding letter of intent to purchase.
The Alaska Ironworkers say they took their cue from Fingerhut employee Nick Wesenberg of St. Cloud, who filed a similar lawsuit last week as a shareholder. The trust owns thousands of shares of Federated with retirement savings for more than 1,000 workers and retirees in Alaska.
Closure of Fingerhut would put 4,700 Minnesotans out of work, almost 2,700 of them in St. Cloud.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/1702615.html
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/ dave /