150 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago 60601; 312-356-6600
Web site: www.stonecontainer.com
Founded: 1926
Employees: 24,600; 1,622 in Illinois
Year-end: Dec. 31
Foreign sales: 18 percent of $879.6 million
Chief executive: Roger W. Stone, 63, since 1989
Cash compensation: $858,475, down 8 percent
Options granted: $1,178,992, up 7 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 1,183,203 of 99.7 million
Largest shareholder: Vanguard/Windsor Funds, 9.5 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15
High: $17.81
Low: $9.50
April 15: $14.06
April 17, 1998, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased 1997: $1,367
Purchased 1993: $1,764
Stone Container is a multinational paper company with operations from planting trees to the manufacture of containerboard.
Last year was difficult for Stone Container, as it tried to adjust to overcapacity in the paper industry and intense price competition. The company was forced to increase downtime at its North American paper mills to reduce excess inventories.
In 1998, Stone Container plans to refocus on its core business–paperboard and paper packaging. It also intends to use proceeds from planned divestitures to reduce debt and strengthen its balance sheet.
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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.
