Frates Group Lists Slate for Kaiser Board
A group led by Oklahoma investor J. A. Frates, which is trying to oust Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical’s board and take over the company, Thursday revealed its slate of 11 board nominees, including two former Kaiser executives.
As reported earlier, the Frates group said Tuesday that it will seek shareholder consent to remove Kaiser Aluminum’s directors and elect a board that will support the group’s $20-per-share takeover bid. The Frates group, which owns 18.6% of Kaiser Aluminum’s stock, has said it wants to recapitalize and restructure the company.
Oakland-based Kaiser Aluminum has rejected the offer, branding it “vague and highly speculative.” Kaiser Aluminum recently announced a restructuring that involves forming a holding company and five operating subsidiaries, refinancing bank debt and raising new capital.
A Kaiser Aluminum spokesman said the company is studying the Frates slate.
Candidates Listed
“Some of the individuals are unknown to us,” he said. “We will make our views known in sufficient time for shareholders to consider them.”
The Frates nominees are: J. A Frates, 65, who over the years has been involved in the several businesses including oil and gas and real estate development; Ira Davidson, 60, a former Kaiser Aluminum executive vice president who took early retirement in 1983 after 26 years with the company; Arthur H. Woodward, 55, a former vice president of sales and marketing for the aluminum division of Kaiser Aluminum, who took early retirement in 1984 after 32 years with the company, and Alan E. Clore, 43, a British financier who formerly was chairman of Gulf Resources & Chemical.
Other nominees are: James J. Kerley, 63, vice chairman of St. Louis-based Emerson Electric, of which Frates is a director; Robert V. Sellers, 59, president of Amro Co., a private oil and gas investment company in Tulsa, Okla.; Uzi Zucker, 50, a managing director of Bear, Stearns & Co., investment adviser to the Frates group; Robert E. Merrick, 43, general partner in Tulsa-based Equivest Associates, the Frates family’s investment partnership; Willis M. McFarlane, 53, chairman and president of Aircoa, a Denver-based real estate development and hotel management company; Guy de Chabaneix, 56, a Paris-based investment banker and senior vice president of the Boston-based securities firm Moseley, Hallgarten, Estabrook & Weeden, and Leonard T. Conway, 36, a partner at New York-based Asset Management Associates, an investment partnership that has been involved in many of Frates’ previous ventures.
