Boise Cascade said it was withdrawing a statement released early ...
Boise Cascade said it was withdrawing a statement released early Mon. detailing the preliminary vote for its proposed $1.38 billion acquisition of OfficeMax because of a clerical error. Boise didn’t elaborate on the error made by the exchange agent,…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Wells Fargo Shareholder Services. A Boise spokesman said a recount was under way and the new figures might be released by late Mon. Earlier, Boise Cascade said 63% of OfficeMax shares had been voted by the 5 p.m. deadline Dec. 5 to state shareholders’ preference for stock or cash in the deal, based on preliminary totals. Of that total, 97% had asked to receive Boise Cascade shares. OfficeMax reached an agreement to sell the chain to Boise in July after warding off Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, whose Orient Star Holding subsidiary had purchased a 14.9-million-share (12%) stake in the company in 2000. OfficeMax later adopted a poison pill strategy that would have been triggered had an investor acquired 15% or more of the outstanding common stock. Orient -- as well as Gateway, which once owned 6.4 million shares (5.2%) as part of failed proposal to develop a store-within-a-store format at OfficeMax -- since has sold its stake. Wellington Management and Dimensional Fund Advisors are currently OfficeMax’s largest shareholders with 6.42 million (5.2%) and 6.37 million (5.1%) common shares, respectively. OfficeMax CEO Michael Feuer, who founded the chain in 1988, owns 6 million shares (4.7%). Another one-time OfficeMax investor was Kmart, which had an equity stake from 1990-1995. OfficeMax operates about 970 stores in 46 states, 30 outlets in Mexico and 17 PowerMax inventory/delivery centers. Its stores carry 8,000 SKUs, about 800 of which are private label or direct import products. The chain went through a major restructuring in fiscal 2002, when it closed 46 stores and since has reduced the size of its store format 15% to 20,000 sq. ft.