2222 Wellington Ct., Lisle 60532; 630-969-4550
Website: www.molex.com
Founded: 1938
Employees: 11,052; 1,043 in Illinois
Year-end: June 30
Foreign sales: 67 percent of $1.38 billion
Chief executive: Frederick A. Krehbiel, 55, since 1988
Cash compensation: $1,038,551, down 10 percent
Options granted: $17,627, up 4 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $231,665
Shares owned: 21,629,592 of 50.1 million; 1,559,290 of 50.7 million Class A
Largest shareholder: Krehbiel family, 46 percent common; 12 percent Class A; 99.8 percent Class B.
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15, 1997
High: $40
Low: $27.50
April 15: $36.69
April 18, 1997 value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased April 18, 1996: $1,212
Purchased April 18, 1992: $2,338
Molex makes electronic, electrical and fiber optic devices, with 110 facilities in 36 countries. Despite price erosion and a stagnant economy in Japan, one of its major markets, profits rose 17 percent last year.
The company poured $85.5 million, an all-time high, into research and development last year. The payoff: 27.5 percent of sales came from products introduced in the last three years.
Last year, Molex set the goal of doubling its 1995 sales of $1.2 billion by 2000. It hopes to reach that goal by continuing to invest in research and by opening plants and adding equipment.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15, 1997. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1996, 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.
– The company’s largest shareholder, as listed in the proxy statement.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the 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 April 18. 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.
