LSB Industries’ executive chairman plans to retire
LSB Industries continues to transform.
The Oklahoma Citybased chemical company made a regulatory filing on Friday that announced Jack E. Golsen, its founder and board executive chairman, is retiring at the end of this year.
The filing said that Golsen informed the company’s board of his plans on June 30.
It also said LSB and Golsen will enter into a transition agreement on Jan. 1. that will keep Golsen on the board after his retirement, serving as its chairman emeritus.
In that role, Golsen will be paid an annual cash retainer of $480,000, and will receive $4,400 a month to cover certain expenses. The company also agreed to pay some of his ongoing health insurance expenses, the filing said.
In the event the company undergoes a “change in control” before he dies, the company agrees to pay Golsen $2.32 million, the company said in the filing.
The stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol LXU, closed up Monday about 4 percent, at $10.75 a share.
Jake Dollarhide, the principal of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, said Monday he viewed Friday’s announcement as just another step in many the company has taken to solidify its business model the past several years.
“The market responded very positively to the news,” Dollarhide said.
Dollarhide noted the company has made changes the past several years to solidify and renew its business identity.
“They got leaner, more focused, and I think that much more stronger going forward,” he said. “So regardless of who is running it, I think the company is in a better position to not only survive, but to thrive.
“When investors think there will be a smooth transition, they react positively,” he said.
A profile of Golsen on Bloomberg says he founded LSB Industries Inc. in 1969. Golsen, a trustee for Oklahoma City University, was inducted into the Oklahoma Commerce and Industry Hall of Honor as one of Oklahoma’s leading industrialists in 1996, his profile on the university’s website says.
Golsen served as LSB’s chief executive officer until Dec. 31, 2014, after the company announced it would reconfigure its board of directors and make other reforms to satisfy activist investors. Eventually, Daniel D. Greenwell became LSB’s president and CEO.
LSB also announced in May 2016 it was selling its climate control business for $364 million to the Swedish firm NIBE Industrier AB.
That sale included LSB’s sizable ClimateMaster manufacturing plant at 7300 SW 44 in Oklahoma City as well as the Oklahoma City-based companies International Environmental Corp., ClimateCraft Inc., ClimaCool Corp., Koax Corp. and ThermaClime Technologies Inc. The business generated about $274 million in revenue in 2015.
As of 2017, LSB Industries continued to manufacture and sell chemical products both directly and through distributors for the agricultural, mining, and industrial markets.
It owns and operates facilities in Pryor and in Cherokee, Alabama, and El Dorado, Arkansas. It also operates a facility for a global chemical company in Baytown, Texas.
In April, the company reported net sales from continuing operations of $123.3 million for the first quarter of 2017, an increase of $24.4 million compared to the same quarter a year earlier.