200 E. Randolph Drive, Chicago 60601; 312-856-6111
Web site: www.amoco.com
Founded: 1889
Employees: 43,451; 5,000 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: 22 percent of $36.3 billion
Chief executive: H. Laurance Fuller, 59, since 1991
Cash compensation: $2,060,963, up 3 percent
Options granted: $2,354,800, up 7 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: $1,756,123
Shares owned: 798,532 of 481.5 million
Largest shareholder: N.A.
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $99
Low: $77.25
April 15: $84.12
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,117
Purchased 1993: $1,756
For Amoco, the key word in 1997 was “focus.” It continued to sell non-core operations to put its energy–and money–into projects with a high likelihood of profits. It sold $1.2 billion of oil and gas operations in the U.S. alone.
Amoco is embracing joint ventures to reduce overhead and spread risk. Altura, Amoco’s venture with Shell Oil Co., was the No. 1 oil producer in Texas in 1997, for example.
Amoco continues to look abroad for oil and gas. It is bringing its service station/convenience stores under a single marketing umbrella to exercise clout as a bulk buyer of soda, candy bars and other items.
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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. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find:
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1997, 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.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, and the change from the prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the value of options granted is based on an assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth, or is determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which these calculations are based is April 17. 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.
– Bloomberg News, New York.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
