The head of UNR Industries Inc. said Friday his leaving the firm is by
”mutual agreement” with its board and not the result of a rupture.
”It`s not a major conflict,” said William F. Andrews, president and chief executive of the Chicago steel products firm, in a telephone interview. He declined to elaborate.
He said he will stay at the Chicago steel products firm for the two to six months it might take to find his successor. ”It`s business as usual here until we find a satisfactory replacement,” he said.
Late Thursday afternoon, UNR disclosed that Andrews will leave the firm
”to pursue other interests” and that a special committee of its board will direct a search for his successor.
Andrews said his departure was discussed within UNR for the last week and was decided at a board meeting here Thursday.
”By mutual agreement, I am leaving,” he said. Gene Locks, the Philadelphia attorney who is UNR`s chairman, echoed Andrews` remark, but also declined to elaborate.
Andrews said he wasn`t currently weighing any job offers. ”I`m considering what I`m going to do,” he said.
The search for a new chief adds to the turmoil at UNR this year.
UNR has been hurt by the recession and price competition, with first-half profits falling 40 percent, to $6.9 million, or 15 cents a share, and sales falling 15 percent, to $173 million. And UNR`s controlling shareholder has suggested the firm go private.
Andrews, 59, joined the firm in April 1990, less than a year after UNR emerged from seven years of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Court proceedings related to its former asbestos products business.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court created a trust to handle all asbestos-health claims against the company and gave the trust a controlling stake in UNR.
The trust has increasingly tightened its grip on UNR and its board. Last May, Locks, one of the trust`s board representatives, became chairman, replacing William S. Leavitt.
Also this year, the trust suggested UNR buy out minority shareholders and go private, thus raising the trust`s UNR stake from 65 to 100 percent.
