Penn students know Steinberg-Dietrich Hall as one of the Wharton School's anchors in the center of campus. But Saul Steinberg, one of the building's namesakes, has found his finances drifting lately. Steinberg, a 1959 Wharton graduate and University Trustee, is chairman of Reliance Group Holdings, an insurance company. Reliance was recently delisted, or removed, from the New York Stock Exchange due to the company's financial problems. "The Exchange's action is being taken due to the abnormally low selling price of the company's common stock," NYSE officials said in a statement. Representatives of Reliance could not be reached for comment. Among the NYSE's criteria for remaining listed are a minimum share price of $1 and a market capitalization -- which is price per share times of the number of shares -- of $50 million. Reliance closed yesterday at 2.6 cents a share and had a market cap of $3 million. Steinberg, a prolific donor at Penn, gave $4 million in 1981 to fund the construction of the $16 million Steinberg Building on top of the old Dietrich Building. In addition, he has endowed the Saul P. Steinberg Professor of Management. Reliance endowed the Reliance Professor of Management and Private Enterprise, which is held by the sitting Wharton dean, in 1980 for $1.5 million. Wharton Dean Patrick Harker currently sits in the post. Steinberg, 60, also made a multi-million donation in the mid-1980s to fund the construction of the Steinberg Conference Center. In fiscal year 1999, Steinberg made a multi-million dollar capital gift to fund Wharton initiatives. The School of Arts and Sciences lists him as having donated more than $1 million lifetime to SAS. According to the Reliance Web site, the company lost $318 million dollars in 1999, a year which Steinberg called "annus horribilis." The Wall Street Journal reported that in December, Reliance reached an agreement with its bondholders to send the company into bankruptcy court with a restructuring plan. According to The New York Times, Steinberg is also being sued by his mother, Anne Steinberg, for defaulting on $5 million he borrowed from her. Anne Steinberg filed the suit in State Supreme Court in Manhattan in September. It is unclear whether or not the lawsuit was ever settled. Steinberg's lawyer was unavailable for comment. Steinberg, known for his lavish lifestyle, hosted many of New York's elite at parties in his 34-room penthouse Park Avenue apartment. However, Steinberg had a habit of borrowing against his stock, and when Reliance began to crumble, he raised money by selling his assets to satisfy creditors, according to the Times. According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, there have been at least two dozen instances in the past year when Steinberg sold shares of Reliance. While preparing his senior thesis in 1959 at Wharton, Steinberg started Leasco, which leased IBM computers. After the company went public in 1965, he used his leverage in the stock to take over Reliance in 1968. After he took over Reliance, Steinberg announced efforts to take other companies, including The New York Times and Disney. Steinberg popularized "greenmail," where an investor buys a large block of stock in a company and threatens to take it over in hopes that management will get nervous and buy the shares back at a higher price, just to get rid of the corporate raider. In the instance of Disney, he purchased a 11.1 percent stake and sold it back within days for a $32 million gain.
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