BANKING / FINANCE : Executives to Promote Their Firms at Meeting of Stockbrokers, Investors

Executives at about three dozen Southern California public companies will soon strut their stuff for 200 stockbrokers and investors in an attempt to persuade them that stock in their firms is undervalued and, therefore, a good investment.

The mass meeting will bring corporate executives and institutional and private investors together Feb. 9 and 10 at a sort of investors’ ball that sponsors are calling a growth-stock conference.

A public company often holds private meetings with brokers from individual Wall Street brokerages to explain what their firms are doing and, in the end, to seek financing or to pump up their firms’ stock.

But only recently have a number of companies have been brought together to pitch their goods to stockbrokers and investors, said Walter Cruttenden III, whose Newport Beach investment banking firm, Cruttenden & Co., is a co-sponsor of the event. Similar conferences have been held in New York and San Francisco, he said.

At the 2-day conference at the Newporter Resort in Newport Beach, each company’s officers will get 5 or 10 minutes to talk about their firm and then answer questions from panelists and the audience. Each company also is expected to have written information available.

“These will be non-stock presentations,” Cruttenden said. “Rather than read all sorts of financial reports, brokers and investors can come to the conference and go away with much more of a feel for the companies.”

All but a handful of the companies at the conference will be Orange County firms. All the firms range in size from $5 million to $800 million in sales or assets. Included are such diverse firms as American Health Services, First American Financial, J.M. Peters, California Commercial Bankshares, Eldorado Bancorp, PacifiCare Health Systems, Armor All Products, Archive Corp., CMS Enhancements, Emulex Corp. and FileNet Corp.

Executives from Western Digital and Carl Karcher Enterprises will make cases for their companies during luncheon talks.

The meeting is open to stockbrokers, managers of pension funds and other funds and affluent individuals--all of whom will pay $400 each to attend.

Also sponsoring the event are the San Francisco law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, which has an office in Newport Beach, and the Big Eight accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co., which has an office in Irvine.