Parting company.

• Author: Gray, Tim
• Position: Sloan Financial Group Inc.

Key employees who tried to buy Sloan Financial Group contend the boss isn't minding his own business.

For weeks, they had been pushing for a meeting. They felt Maceo Sloan, president and CEO of NCM Capital Management Group Inc., was dodging them. The eight executives - four marketing reps and four portfolio managers - insisted he meet with them in the conference room of the company's downtown Durham office. In early March 1997, Sloan finally agreed.

Portfolio manager Wendell Mackey, their spokesman, laid a letter on the table. They wanted to buy Sloan Financial Group Inc., Sloan's holding company and parent of NCM, the country's biggest and best-known black-owned money manager. They had been planning this for two months.

For Sloan, it was a slap in the face, a vote of no confidence from a majority of his senior staff. The group thought he was spending too much on frivolities such as a private jet while paying too little attention to the business. He was distracted, they thought, by new ventures, including his New Africa Advisers Inc. investment subsidiary and ConXus, a Greenville, S.C.-based paging network.

You better not send that letter to AmEx, Sloan told them. Too late, they said. Rod Hare, a marketer, had already talked with American Express Financial Advisors Inc., which owns 40% of Sloan Financial, about selling its stake. AmEx wanted out. Fine, Sloan responded, who's backing your deal? They refused to tell him. The meeting ended in stalemate.

If Sloan was angry that afternoon, he didn't show it, his only sign of agitation the sewing-machine twitch of his leg. He's the sort who doesn't flinch. He took his company into South Africa before any U.S. investment company, even Wall Street's big boys. His Johannesburg office opened in 1993, the year before the multiracial democracy took over.

What happened after the meeting is a matter of dispute. But ultimately the buyout fell through, three of the managers were fired, and four others resigned. Three sued, accusing Sloan of mismanagement, fraud and interfering in their dealings with AmEx and two potential backers. The suit, filed in December, is in its early stages. Its allegations, though eye-catching, so far are mostly unsubstantiated.

But the suit and accompanying turmoil aren't the only signs of trouble at Sloan Financial Group. On account of middling investment performance, the company in 1997 and early 1998 lost more clients than normal - Sloan won't say how many - including high-profile ones such as the Pennsylvania State Workers Insurance Fund. On top of that, an affiliated company in South Africa, Umbono Investment Corp., has been accused of...