California investor making another run at Advocat board

After recent purchases, fund now owns almost 7 percent of company

Email | Print By Geert De Lombaerde

The money manager that last year called for nursing home operator Advocat to put itself up for sale is again trying to win two board seats at the Brentwood-based company.

Los Angeles-based Bristol Capital Advisors, which owns 6.9 percent of Advocat's shares, said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this morning that it will nominate Paul Kessler and Richard McKilligan for the board seats at this spring's annual meeting. Adovcat has not yet filed its proxy detailing when that meeting will take place.

An identical proposal last year garnered very little outside support, although Kessler's separate call for Advocat to hire an investment bank and seek out a buyer won about 14 percent of the vote.

Kessler has been nipping at Advocat's heels since the summer of 2006, when shares of Advocat (Ticker: AVCA) were trading above $15. They closed Monday trading at $2.44, giving the company, which rang up 2008 profits of $5.4 million on revenues of $288 million, a market capitalization of about $14 million.