Hawaii will have a new publicly traded company come July 2.
Alexander & Baldwin Holdings Inc. said Friday its board of directors unanimously approved the separation of the company’s Matson shipping operations from its land business to create a new publicly traded company.
The transportation business will be operated under the name "Matson Inc." and will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "MATX." Alexander & Baldwin’s real estate and agriculture business will continue to operate under the name "Alexander & Baldwin Inc." and trade under the ticker symbol "ALEX."
MATSON’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
» Walter Dods
» W. Blake Baird, CEO of Terreno Realty Corp.
» Michael Chun, president of Kamehameha Schools Kapalama Campus
» Matthew Cox, president of Matson Navigation Co. Inc.
» Admiral Thomas Fargo, U.S. Navy (retired), chairman of the board of Huntington Ingalls Industries
» Constance Lau, CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc.
» Jeffrey Watanabe
Dods, Baird, Chun, Fargo, Lau and Watanabe currently serve on the A&B board; Cox is newly appointed.
NEW A&B BOARD OF DIRECTORS
» Stanley Kuriyama
» W. Allen Doane, retired chairman of the board and CEO of A&B
» Walter Dods
» Robert Harrison, CEO of First Hawaiian Bank
» Charles King, president of King Auto Center
» Douglas Pasquale, director of Ventas Inc. and retired chairman of the board and CEO of National Health Properties Inc.
» Michele Saito, president of Farmers Insurance Hawaii
» Jeffrey Watanabe
» Eric K. Yeaman, president and CEO of Hawaiian Telcom
Kuriyama, Dods, Doane, King, Pasquale and Watanabe currently serve on the company’s board. Harrison, Saito and Yeaman are newly appointed to the new A&B board.
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Alexander & Baldwin’s shareholders of record on June 18 will receive one share in the new Alexander & Baldwin and one share in the new Matson for each share they own of the old A&B. The shares will be distributed June 29.
A type of trading known as "ex-distribution" trading of Matson shares will begin Thursday, using the ticker symbol MATX-WI. The "WI" stands for "when issued." The same will be the case for the new A&B stock, using the ticker symbol ALEX-WI.
The first day of "regular way" trading of the stock of each company is expected to be July 2. The price of the shares in Matson and the new A&B will be set by the market.
The separation still needs approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which the company said is expected to come on Monday.
A&B stock rose 78 cents Friday to close at $52.15. News of the board’s decision was released after the market closed.
"The separation will enhance the creation of long-term shareholder value for each of these businesses by enabling both companies to focus on their respective strategies," said Walter Dods, chairman of Alexander & Baldwin Holdings and retired CEO of First Hawaiian Bank. "The board’s actions reflect our confidence that this separation will create two strong, publicly traded companies for the state of Hawaii."
The separation was first announced in December when the A&B board gave approval to its executives to proceed with the plan to spin off Matson. On Friday the company said the board gave the plan its final approval.
With a new publicly traded company comes a new board of directors, and Alexander & Baldwin announced Friday who will serve on the board of Matson and the reconstituted A&B board.
A&B had previously announced that Dods would be chairman of the Matson board of directors, and Stanley Kuriyama, currently A&B’s president and CEO, would be chairman of the new A&B board of directors. Jeffrey Watanabe, chairman of the board of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. and retired founder of Watanabe Ing LLP, a law partnership, has been appointed lead independent director for the new A&B board of directors.
