Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1990 TAG: 9005300100
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short
Jovanovich, 70, will be succeeded as chairman by former U.S. energy secretary John S. Herrington, who has been on the board of directors for a year.
The resignation came three years after Jovanovich helped thwart a hostile takeover attempt that left the textbook publisher struggling to pay off a $1.6 billion debt.
Jovanovich joined Harcourt Brace & Co. as a book salesman and editor in 1947 and built it into one of the nation's leading publishers of textbooks as well as a premier medical and professional publisher.
Analysts said they expect no major shifts for the company.
"I don't see where this makes a whole lot of difference," said Andrew Herenstein, who follows the company for the investment firm Delaware Bay Co. in New York. "There still has to be some kind of restructuring."
Wall Street also shrugged off the change. In trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Harcourt closed at $3.125 a share, unchanged from Friday.
Jovanovich leaves the company with $1.6 billion in debt incurred in a 1987 recapitalization undertaken to avoid a takeover bid from British publisher Robert Maxwell.
Many analysts say the company generates enough cash to meet its interest obligations over the next two years. But they warn that trouble could develop in 1992 when cash payments start coming due on preferred stock and debt which now are issuing additional securities as dividends.
by CNB