Boise Cascade Investor Wants To Shake Up Board

Boise Cascade Corp. in January reported an operating profit after 15 straight quarters of red ink. But one of the company’s biggest investors says that Idaho-based timber and paper company has consistently underperformed its peers in the industry and it wants to shake up the board of directors.

At the April 21 annual meeting, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) will try again to “de-stagger” the terms of Boise Cascade directors.

A similar proposal was rejected last year.

Under the system now in effect, directors are divided into classes that each serve a three-year term. Shareholders can only vote on onethird of the company’s directors in any given year.

CalPERS said in a statement Wednesday the company needs to adopt measures that will increase accountability for its long-term pattern of poor performance. “We think accountability is paramount,” said CalPERS Board President William Dale Crist. “Boise Cascade has a pattern of underperformance that the company should be called to account for, starting with its board of directors.”

The company reported a net of $25.9 million for the fourth quarter of 1994, its first profit in four years. For the full year, the company listed a loss of $62.6 million, $3.08 per fully diluted share.

“Boise Cascade’s performance has improved somewhat over the past two years, but we are not persuaded that this partial upswing compensates for its long-term record,” Crist said.

CalPERS owns 227,000 shares of Boise Cascade stock, or approximately 0.6 percent of the outstanding stock.