Stocking Up on AMS
by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 2/8/2006
Although Advanced Marketing Services has yet to issue its year-end reports for fiscal 2004 and 2005, a number of parties that own more than 5% of the company’s stock have recently issued there own reports to the SEC detailing the amount of shares they own in the troubled distributor.
The filings include several companies that have held stock in AMS for a number of years and one new major investor. Parties associated with Robert Robotti now own just over 1 million shares of AMS, spending $4.4 million to accumulate that total. Its most recent purchases came in December and January and brought the total over 5%, the threshold that requires a party to report to the SEC. In its filing, Robotti said the acquisition of shares is for investment purposes.
The largest AMS shareholders, according to the most recent available data, is Kahn Brothers and Co. which now owns nearly 18% of AMS’ stock; in AMS’ last proxy statement issued in 2003, the firm had a 5.2% stake. Grace and White, another longtime AMS investor, has a 10.0% stake in the company, up from 7.9% in 2003. FMR, which had been AMS’s largest investor in 2003 with an 11.3% holding, has whittled that down and now holds a 5.8% stake.|
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