
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993                   TAG: 9310090035
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

BEST PRODUCTS GETS $2.6 MILLION SETTLEMENT

Best Products Co. Inc., a Richmond-based catalog showroom retailer with stores in Western Virginia, said it will get $2.6 million from its founders, five former stockholders and an investment firm that engineered the retailer's buyout.

The largest amount in the settlement - $2 million - will come from Adler & Shaykin. The New York investment company orchestrated the $1.14 billion leveraged buyout in 1988.

The company's founders, Sydney and Frances Lewis of Richmond, and a group of other directors and stockholders will pay the remaining $600,000.

The group includes Susan L. Butler, the Lewises' daughter; Robert E.R. Huntley, Best's former chairman and chief executive officer; and Robert L. Burrus Jr., a former director and a partner in the law firm of McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe.

Also in the group are William F. Costello, Best's former chief operating officer; and Ross R. Millhiser, a former director and retired vice chairman of Philip Morris Cos.

The money will go into a fund that is to be divided among Best's creditors.

"We believe the settlements are an appropriate resolution," said Steward M. Kasen, Best's president and chief executive officer.

The company sued the Lewises, the former directors, Adler & Shaykin and every shareholder who owned more than 1,000 shares of stock when the company changed hands.

The suit claimed the defendants knew or should have known that the buyout price was too high.

The retailer filed for protection from creditors in January 1990.

by CNB