McLean family keeps Trailer Bridge options open

McLean family keeps Trailer Bridge options open    Family members of Malcom McLean, the container-shipping pioneer who late in his life founded the U.S. mainland-Puerto Rico container liner carrier Trailer Bridge, offered an update on their plans in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
   They said an agreement with an investment bank to sell their position in the company has since lapsed and they have left their options open, but had “no intention, either alone or in concert with another person, to acquire or exercise additional control of the company.”
   The filing was by Clara L. McLean, Nancy McLean Parker, Malcom P. McLean Jr., Patricia McLean Mendenhall, and business associate Artis James. They are beneficial owners of about 47.8 percent of the company’s common stock.
   Back in November 2007 the family members said they were considering possible sale of their stock and had hired New York investment firm AMA Capital Partners as advisors. The company’s board of directors formed a committee a month later to work with the McLean family and explore strategic alternatives. But when the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into pricing practices in the Puerto Rico ocean carrier industry, the company suspended that effort saying the investigation was likely to result in a “less robust process” in seeking a buyer.

Malcom McLean

   The government investigation resulted in plea agreements with executives from Horizon Lines and Sea Star Lines who were fined and sent to jail. But there have not been charges against Puerto Rico carriers Trailer Bridge and Crowley Maritime. Last week Horizon announced a settlement with shippers who filed class action suits against it in the wake of the Justice Department investigation.
   Trailer Bridge pledged full and complete cooperation with the Justice Department's investigation and said it would “defend vigorously” itself against the suits filed by shippers, saying they were without merit.
   Monday, the McLean family filed a 13-D with the SEC in which they said their engagement of AMA Capital has since terminated, and that they “intend to review their investment in the company’s common stock on a continuing basis.” They said they would “take such actions with respect to their investment in the company’s common stock as they deem appropriate” including buying or selling the company’s common stock or communicating with the company or other investors.