Oliver Press Partners and Fondren Management to Withhold on Seabright Holdings, Inc. Director Nominees
NEW YORK, May 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Oliver Press Partners, LLC and Fondren Management LP sent the following letter to Seabright Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SBX) stating how they intended to vote at Seabright's upcoming shareholder meeting.
Mr. John G. Pasqualetto |
|
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer |
|
Seabright Holdings, Inc. |
|
1501 4th Avenue, Suite 2600 |
|
Seattle, WA 98101 |
|
3 May, 2011
Dear John:
We were surprised and disappointed that George Morvis, the current Presiding Director of Seabright's Board, decided to decline our request to meet. As advisers to funds owning over 700,000 shares, we believe we should have the opportunity to share our views about the past and future direction of the Company with the Board's current Presiding Director.
As you know from our prior conversations, we are very concerned about the Company's deteriorating operating performance. The decision by Mr. Morvis only underscores our view that the Board does not share our sense of urgency as to the need for a coherent and realizable plan to address the Company's shortcomings.
Over the past five years, Seabright's stock has underperformed the SNL U.S. Insurance P&C Index by 63.8% and now trades at just 65% of book value. By contrast, when Seabright issued shares to the public in 2006, they were sold at 166% of book. We believe that the stock's performance is simply a reflection of operating results over the past few years, which have included declining revenue and profitability as well as repeated additions to loss reserves, now amounting to over $33 million in the last four quarters alone, as well as the lack of a clear plan to move the Company forward. The ratings agencies have taken notice, ranking Seabright's insurance subsidiaries at levels which require the Company to retain significantly more capital than its peers in order to compete in its chosen markets.
Your response to this state of affairs is to stop writing new business that is 'unprofitable' and wait for the pricing environment to improve, hardly a strategy in our view to address the longer term structural issues facing the Company. In the absence of a realizable plan to generate profitable growth, we have suggested that the Company consider a sale or merger with a stronger peer as the best solution to generate value for shareholders. That suggestion seems to have been brushed aside.
The Board composition only seems to reinforce the status quo. You hold the positions of Chairman, President and CEO, and your colleagues on the Board rotate through the Presiding Director role annually on an alphabetical basis. This exercise in directorial democracy appears to consolidate all authority in you and gives us no confidence that the Board is addressing the future with the independence that shareholders deserve.
For the reasons stated above, we intend to withhold our votes on the Directors up for election at this year's annual meeting on May 17th, 2011.
Sincerely,
Clifford Press |
Bradley L Radoff |
|
Managing Member |
General Partner |
|
Oliver Press Partners, LLC |
Fondren Management LP |
|
SOURCE Oliver Press Partners, LLC
WANT YOUR COMPANY'S NEWS FEATURED ON PRNEWSWIRE.COM?
![icon3](/content/dam/newsfeatured/icon3.png)
Newsrooms &
Influencers
![icon1](/content/dam/newsfeatured/icon1.png)
Digital Media
Outlets
![icon2](/content/dam/newsfeatured/icon2.png)
Journalists
Opted In
Share this article