MONTREAL (AFP) - Media tycoon Conrad Black resigned as chairman and chief executive of Hollinger Inc., the Canadian holding company for the media empire he built, a company statement said.
The resignation was to take effect at 10:00 am (1500 GMT), the Toronto-based group said in a statement.
Black, facing battles with shareholders and investigations in the United States and Canada, announced plans to quit his posts last week.
The British tycoon has been in a bitter feud with the US-based operating company for the media empire he built, and some reports said the board of Hollinger Inc. had also been pressing for his resignation.
The move comes as Black proposed to take the company private. The announcement appeared to be a new strategy to keep the reins of his media empire.
Black, who renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to take a seat in Britain`s House of Lords, would still control Hollinger Inc. through his private equity firm, Ravelston.
Ravelston already owns 78 percent of Hollinger Inc. and would end up with 100 percent if the company goes private.
In turn, Hollinger Inc. controls 18 percent of the shares and 68 percent of the voting rights of Hollinger International, the US-based operating company for the Chicago Sun Times and Jerusalem Post. It recently sold the Telegraph Group of Britain.
Black`s moves came as a Canadian court was considering a request from one of the minority stakeholders, Catalyst Fund General Partner I Inc, to remove all board members except for Robert Metcalfe and Allan Wakefield, named September 27.
At the request of Catalyst Fund, the court earlier this month ordered an audit of all transactions of the company involving Hollinger Inc. and Black, along with his wife Barbara Amiel Black and other Black associates.
Catalyst Fund had complaint to the court about the propriety of a 1.1 million dollar (902,000 US) loan from Hollinger Inc. to Ravelston without the approval of independent board members.
Black was ousted in January as chairman of the US operating company for his media empire amid allegations he bled the company dry for his own benefit.
The board has claimed he looted the company through a variety of improper payments; he has countersued for libel.
Hollinger International, based in Chicago, filed an amendment to a lawsuit last week in a US court in Illinois, demanding 542 million dollars in damages based on a report that accused Black and associates of "looting" the company.
The complaint also adds as a defendant Hollinger International director Richard Perle, a former US Defense Department official who has also headed the Defense Policy Board, an advisory group to the US military.
11/02/2004 - 18:08 GMT - AFP