PCG PG&E Corporation

By Becky Yerak 

BlueMountain Capital Management LLC, the hedge fund seeking to replace the board at bankrupt PG&E Corp., said Friday it has nominated 13 candidates for the California utility's board.

The San Francisco-based utility, which is struggling with billions of dollars in potential liabilities from its role in sparking California wildfires, is expected to hold its annual shareholder meeting in May.

BlueMountain said Friday that its proposed board has the experience to handle the safety, risk management, governance and transparency matters that must be top priorities for PG&E.

The nominee slate of the New York-based investment firm includes Phil Angelides, a former California state treasurer who served as chairman of the U.S. Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which investigated the 2008 financial meltdown; Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by the U.S. government to oversee the Sept. 11 victims' compensation fund and to help oversee the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil spill fund; and Christopher Hart, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The hedge fund in January had protested PG&E's board's decision to file for bankruptcy, calling it a "costly and unnecessary" move, and said at the time that it planned to nominate a new board at the next annual shareholder meeting.

BlueMountain said Friday that it interviewed more than 60 potential candidates. It has said that PG&E stock, currently trading at $18 a share, could be worth more than $50 a share with the right corporate governance.

PG&E has said it plans to make changes to its board, with a goal of ensuring that most of its directors will be new, independent directors by the time of the annual meeting. On Friday, PG&E said it "appreciates the constructive dialogue that it has had with shareholders and other stakeholders throughout this process" and that it expects to continue talks with BlueMountain and others regarding the composition of the board.

Facing an estimated $30 billion worth of liabilities for death, injury and property damage stemming from years of wildfires, PG&E sought bankruptcy protection aiming for a resolution that will appease thousands of injured people and save the utility.

In his state-of-the-state address earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom said California has hired lawyers and financial advisers to tackle the public-safety and utility-service issues at stake in PG&E's bankruptcy.

BlueMountain owns about 11 million of PG&E's 528 million shares.

The hedge fund's proposed board for PG&E also includes five utility executives: Fred Buckman, chief executive of electric-transmission-system operator Powerlink Transmission Co.; Donald Chappel, former chief financial officer for natural-gas pipeline operator Williams Cos.; David Crane, former NRG Energy Inc. CEO; Tanuja Dehne, former NRG chief administrative officer; and Dick Rosenblum, a former executive at utility Southern California Edison.

In addition to Mr. Angelides, the proposed slate includes five other California residents: Alvaro Aguirre, chairman of industrial-staffing business EmployBridge and a former planning-commission chairman of Tiburon, Calif.; Marjorie Bowen, a former Houlihan Lokey investment banker who also has served on a utility board; Mark Lerdal, executive chairman of Leaf Clean Energy Co. and a former KKR Financial managing director; Barbara Lloyd, California's former chief deputy treasurer and a former managing director for KPMG's infrastructure advisory group; and Jeffrey Ubben, founder and CEO of investment firm ValueAct Capital.

Write to Becky Yerak at becky.yerak@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 01, 2019 14:12 ET (19:12 GMT)

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