Proxy King

The current king of the proxy fighters is a tough-talking, dapper Washington lawyer named Alfons Landa, who admits that his role in more than half a dozen battles has made him "as popular as a skunk." Last week Landa, 60, won his biggest battle by unseating pudgy Leopold Silberstein, 54, from the sick Penn-Texas Corp., taking over as president at $36,000 a year. (Silberstein will collect $40,000 a year for five years as an "adviser.") Landa got into the fight nearly two years ago when Chicago's Fairbanks, Morse decided to back him financially as a counterirritant to Silberstein, who tried unsuccessfully to win control of Fair banks, Morse. After Silberstein and Fair banks, Morse made their peace, Lawyer Landa rounded up Penn-Texas' dissident stockholders and continued the fight. Now he faces another fight of his own against a second group of stockholders, who want to elect their own management.

Mother & Freud. Landa likes to think of himself as a sort of corporate purgative, says: "The stock goes up when I clean the bastards out." But he has found it profitable to fight most of his proxy battles on the side of management. Rarely before has he tried to take over in a corporate fight. Usually he makes his money by buying stock cheap in a sick company, selling out after he has done his bit to make the company and stock strong. "You don't always have to do everything for a fast buck," he says. "I'll take mine slower." Landa has never been slow to get his hands on money. He inherited $200,000 from his mother, spent part of it studying psychology under Sigmund Freud in Vienna, playwriting under George Pierce Baker at Yale, law at George Washington University. In 1926 he joined a top Washington law firm (now Davies, Richberg, Tydings, Landa & Duff), was soon making fat fees for defending prominent men, e.g., Alexander de Seversky (for his criticism of Air Force procurement).

His first proxy battle of consequence was at Colonial Airlines, where he took over briefly (nine months) as president in 1951. He stepped back in as a consultant a couple of months later when a stockholders' proxy fight developed because of proposals from two competing airlines to buy Colonial. Landa pacified the stockholders, managed to hold off any purchase until Colonial stock had risen. Eastern Air Lines eventually bought Colonial at $24 a share v. the $7.62 market price when Landa stepped in.

A Cool $1,000,000. Landa's most notable fight, before Penn-Texas, was at Fruehauf Trailer Co. There he defended President Roy Fruehauf against a raid after brother Harvey Fruehauf sold a large block of stock to the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co. Landa proceeded to raid the raider, made himself a cool $1,000,000 on Fruehauf stock during the fight. Landa welcomes allies from any quarter. During the Fruehauf fight, he negotiated a $1,500,000 loan from the then Teamster President Dave Beck to finance Fruehauf stock purchases.

Landa has never stayed long in one place once he has made his money, but he plans to make Penn-Texas an exception. "Within six months to a year," he says, "I'll stem the flow of blood." Apparently many Penn-Texas stockholders think he can do it. Penn-Texas stock, which plummeted during Silberstein's reign from $22.87 to $2.87 a share, last week gained $2.75 to close at $6.75.

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