Shareholders were out of luck if they wanted to congratulate the three Reptron Electronics board members who were re-elected to new terms at the Tampa company's annual meeting last week.
The three - Leigh Lane, Vincent Addonisio and Bertram Miner - didn't attend the Monday event at Reptron's headquarters. That's okay. Reptron chairman and chief executive Michael Musto was a no-show as well.
In fact, only two of Reptron's six board members were there: president Paul Plante and outside general counsel William Elson.
Plante said Miner lives in Chicago, which made the trip difficult, and he couldn't explain the other absences. He pointed out that the Reptron directors had just assembled for a board meeting a week prior. Besides, he said, attendance is typically sparse at these annual affairs.
True to prediction, there were fewer than a dozen people in the audience, many of them employees. But two shareholders during and after the meeting raised the issue about absent directors, coming at a time the company is selling a third of its business and struggling to restructure terms of a $76-million bond now in default.
What it lacked in a show of numbers, though, Reptron made up for in personal attention. After the meeting, Plante sat down individually with several shareholders until their questions were exhausted.
