125 S. Franklin St., Chicago 60606; 312-606-4000
COMPANY
Founded: 1901
Year-end: Dec. 31
Employees: 12,300; 900 in Illinois
Foreign sales: 14 percent of $2.29 billion
Stock 365-day close:
High: $29
Low: $17.25
April 28: $23.625
April 1, 1995 value of $1,000 in company stock
Purchased 1994: $757.20
Purchased 1990: $102.22
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
Eugene B. Connolly, 63, since 1990
Cash compensation: $1,565,694, up 10 percent
Options granted in 1994: None; $1,618,375 in 1993.
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised in 1994: None
Shares owned: 7,479 of 45 million
Restricted stock: none
The nation’s largest manufacturer and distributor of gypsum wallboard got a boost from the housing boom of 1994 and posted record shipments in key products such as wallboard, ceiling tile, joint compound and cement board.
A dropoff in housing starts this year because of higher short-term interest rate rises could trim sales, but the company hopes that will be offset by higher spending for renovation and remodeling plus a recovery in non-residential construction.
Though it has continued to shed debt since it came out of its brief, pre-packaged bankruptcy in 1993, USG is still deep in debt. The company also is a defendant in asbestos litigation, but the Illinois Supreme Court ruled last month that USG’s insurance carriers are responsible for its liabilities.
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The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 28, 1995.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
Each profile includes the 365-day high, low and April 28, 1995, closing stock price for the company. Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago also are shown. The date on which those calculations are based is April 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
Each profile includes the chief executive’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1994, along with the change from the prior year. The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
