Fund Nominates 13 PG&E Directors -- WSJ
March 04 2019 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Becky Yerak
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (March 4, 2019).
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 04, 2019 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
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