1 E. Wacker Drive, Chicago 60601; 312-661-4600
Founded: 1990
Employees: 7,600; 795 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: None of $1.4 billion
Chief executive
Richard C. Vie, 58, since 1992
Cash compensation: $575,300, up 19 percent
Options granted: $1,023,000, up 10 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $16,375
Shares owned: 145,100 of 38.4 million
Largest shareholder: Henry E. Singleton, 18.7 percent
Stock 365-day close
High: $51.75
Low: $44.50
May 1, 1996: $48.50
May 1, 1996, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased May 1, 1995: $1,013.62
Purchased May 1, 1991: $1,478.51
Unitrin, which spent much of 1994 fighting off a hostile takeover bid from American General Corp., turned around in 1995 and acquired Milwaukee Insurance Group Inc. in a $93 million deal.
The acquisition jacked up revenues in Unitrin’s property and casualty business but operating income dropped primarily due to lower investment income and higher auto insurance claims. Storm losses and higher interest expense to fund a major stock repurchase program connected with the takeover fight also affected performance.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of May 1, 1996. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1995, 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.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the previous or prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the current value of options granted is based on the assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which those calculations are based is May 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
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.
