-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: webmaster@www.sec.gov Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFgwCgYEVQgBAQICAf8DSgAwRwJAW2sNKK9AVtBzYZmr6aGjlWyK3XmZv3dTINen TWSM7vrzLADbmYQaionwg5sDW3P6oaM5D3tdezXMm7z1T+B+twIDAQAB MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, Kw1Xtj4vMBgnWU3ROmm3Y7KfWXE/Qy8c/llc85jS50Hup3JyXAViSImpC8kj0OuW GCnL/MJaOSDStGjVWaQI7w== 0000950123-99-002354.txt : 19990323 0000950123-99-002354.hdr.sgml : 19990323 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0000950123-99-002354 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: PX14A6G PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 4 FILED AS OF DATE: 19990322 SUBJECT COMPANY: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: LUBRIZOL CORP CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000060751 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC CHEMICALS [2860] IRS NUMBER: 340367600 STATE OF INCORPORATION: OH FISCAL YEAR END: 1231 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: PX14A6G SEC ACT: SEC FILE NUMBER: 001-05263 FILM NUMBER: 99569824 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 29400 LAKELAND BLVD CITY: WICKLIFFE STATE: OH ZIP: 44092 BUSINESS PHONE: 2169434200 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 29400 LAKELAND BLVD CITY: WICKLIFFE STATE: OH ZIP: 44092 FILED BY: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: COLLEGE RETIREMENT EQUITIES FUND CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000777535 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN SIC - 0000 [0000] IRS NUMBER: 136022042 STATE OF INCORPORATION: NY FISCAL YEAR END: 1231 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: PX14A6G BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 730 THIRD AVE CITY: NEW YORK STATE: NY ZIP: 10017 BUSINESS PHONE: 2129164905 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 730 THIRD AVE CITY: NEW YORK STATE: NY ZIP: 10017 PX14A6G 1 NOTICE OF EXEMPT SOLICITATION 1 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Washington, D.C. 20549 Notice of Exempt Solicitation submitted pursuant to Rule 14a-6(g) 1. Name of Registrant: The Lubrizol Corporation ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Name of person relying on exemption: College Retirement Equities Fund ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Address of person relying on the exemption: 730 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Written materials. The following materials are attached: Exhibit 1: Letter from Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund to the shareholders of Lubrizol Corporation Exhibit 2: Resolution to be proposed by Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund at the annual meeting of Lubrizol Corporation Exhibit 3: Article published on Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund's web site EX-99.1 2 LETTER 1 Exhibit 1 TEACHERS INSURANCE AND ANNUITY ASSOCIATION COLLEGE RETIREMENT EQUITIES FUND PETER C. CLAPMAN Senior Vice President and 730 Third Avenue/New York, NY 10017-3206 Chief Counsel, Investments 212 490-9000 March 18, 1999 Dear Fellow Lubrizol Shareholder: TIAA-CREF has held a significant equity position in The Lubrizol Corporation for more than 15 years, and currently owns 967,000 shares (or 1.6%) of Lubrizol's common stock. At Lubrizol's upcoming Annual Meeting, scheduled for April 26, 1999, we intend to propose a resolution (set forth in Lubrizol's proxy statement) that requests the Board of Directors to redeem the Company's "dead hand" poison pill, unless shareholders vote otherwise. We are asking for your support of our proposal. As detailed below, we believe that Lubrizol's vigorous effort to keep our proposal out of its proxy statement illustrates management's extraordinary disdain for shareholder interests. Therefore, we intend to "send a message" to Lubrizol's board of directors that its actions are unacceptable by withholding our votes on Lubrizol's director nominees. We encourage you to do the same. LUBRIZOL'S DEAD HAND PILL DISENFRANCHISES SHAREHOLDERS Lubrizol's dead hand poison pill can be redeemed only with the consent of Lubrizol's CURRENT directors (or future directors approved by them). Therefore, if Lubrizol's directors were to reject an attractive third-party acquisition offer that shareholders favored, the shareholders would have no ability to replace Lubrizol's directors with directors who would have the power to redeem the pill and allow shareholders to accept that offer. We cannot accept the premise that Lubrizol's current directors (and their nominees) are the only individuals who can accept or reject an acquisition bid for the company. We believe that Lubrizol's directors have wrongfully usurped shareholder power for themselves. It is noteworthy that, while Ohio courts have yet to rule on the validity of dead hand pills, they have been declared illegal in Delaware, the state in which the majority of U.S. public companies are incorporated. LUBRIZOL'S ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF ITS DEAD HAND PILL ARE WITHOUT MERIT Lubrizol concedes in its response to our proposal that its dead hand provision prevents a potential acquiror from replacing the current board with directors who could approve the acquiror's acquisition proposal. What Lubrizol does not say, however, is that the only practical way a potential acquiror could gain control of sufficient voting power to replace the board is BY SOLICITING OUR VOTES. The dead hand ignores the will of the shareholders by subverting the voting process. If the potential acquiror tried to obtain sufficient voting power to replace the board through stock purchases or voting agreements, Lubrizol's pill would be triggered and the potential acquiror would suffer substantial economic dilution. Therefore, a third party bidder could only replace the current board if Lubrizol's other shareholders approved of the proposed transaction and granted that party their proxies. This is how corporate governance is supposed to work. Lubrizol has further obscured the issue by noting in its response to our proposal that shareholders previously approved a "continuing director" provision in Lubrizol's Amended Articles of Incorporation. The apparent implication is that we should therefore not be offended by the dead hand provision in the pill, which also contains the "continuing director" concept. There are, however, two major differences that Lubrizol neglects to mention. 2 March 18, 1999 Page 2 First, unlike the amendment to the Articles, shareholders did not approve the dead hand provision - it was unilaterally adopted by the board of directors. Second, and more importantly, the "continuing director" provision in the Amended Articles of Incorporation does not vest the right to approve a "related party" transaction solely in continuing directors. To the contrary, shareholders are expressly empowered by the Amended Articles of Incorporation to approve such transactions. OTHER COMPANIES HAVE PULLED THEIR DEAD HAND PROVISIONS TIAA-CREF, the world's largest pension system and a significant investor in virtually all major U.S. companies, has asked a number of other companies to drop their dead hand provisions. Most of the companies receiving our resolution have agreed with our analysis and voluntarily amended their pills to remove the dead hand provisions. In contrast, Lubrizol vigorously resisted our efforts to bring this issue before the shareholders, petitioning the SEC and wasting valuable resources in an attempt to deny you the right to vote on our proposal. Only after the SEC flatly rejected Lubrizol's meritless arguments were you afforded the opportunity to vote on our proposal. LUBRIZOL IS STRUGGLING Under the stewardship of Lubrizol's current management, the Company has provided consistently poor returns to shareholders. On February 25, 1999, The Wall Street Journal listed Lubrizol among the worst performers in the past decade, noting that it has lagged significantly behind its specialty chemical peers. Lubrizol's shares have foundered during the most buoyant stock market in history, losing more than a third of their value over the past five years. A majority of Lubrizol's current directors have served on the board during these five years of poor performance. They have erected a defense in the dead hand pill that would prevent us from replacing them with directors who may be more independent in evaluating an attractive takeover bid for Lubrizol. Rather than addressing how it intends to provide greater shareholder returns, Lubrizol's board has instead entrenched itself by usurping our fundamental shareholder rights. We are frustrated with management's unwillingness to address our concerns regarding Lubrizol's dead hand pill and therefore are bringing this very important issue to our fellow shareholders. We would be happy to discuss this matter with you further in more detail. Please contact Georgeson & Company Inc., our advisor, at (212) 440-9800, or Ken Bertsch of TIAA-CREF at (212) 916-4972 with any questions you might have. We strongly urge you to (1) vote FOR TIAA-CREF's shareholder proposal and (2) WITHHOLD your votes from Lubrizol's director nominees at Lubrizol's 1999 Annual Meeting. Sincerely, /s/ Peter C. Clapman EX-99.2 3 RESOLUTIONS 1 Exhibit 2 The following excerpt from Lubrizol's 1999 proxy statement includes TIAA-CREF's shareholder resolution and supporting statement on the company's "dead hand poison pill." SHAREHOLDER PROPOSAL The Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund, 730 Third Avenue, New York, New York, 10017-3206, the beneficial owner of 969,233 Common Shares, has submitted the following proposal: WHEREAS, the Company's Board of Directors, without shareholder approval, has adopted a plan, commonly known as a "poison pill", with a "dead hand" provision which permits only the board members that adopted the poison pill to redeem the pill; WHEREAS, this type of poison pill, unlike most poison pills, not only allows the current Board to effectively thwart acquisition offers which may be favored by a majority of shareholders, but also denies shareholders the right to replace this Board with new directors empowered to redeem the poison pill and permit such offers to go forward, unless the new directors have been recommended or approved by the continuing directors; WHEREAS, we believe that a "dead hand" poison pill has a coercive effect on the shareholders' basic right to freely elect a new Board and also takes away normal decision-making authority in this important area from a newly elected Board; WHEREAS, we believe that such a "dead hand" poison pill interferes with good corporate governance and can reduce the value of the company's shares to the detriment of shareholders; RESOLVED, that the shareholders request that the Board of Directors redeem the "dead hand" poison pill, unless approved by the affirmative vote of a majority of shares of the Company entitled to vote at a meeting of shareholders held as soon as practicable. SUPPORTING STATEMENT By adopting the poison pill without shareholder approval, the current Board unilaterally deprived shareholders of the traditional right to sell their shares to potential bidders. By adding the "dead hand" feature, we believe this Board also denies appropriate decision making authority to a new Board, elected by shareholders, to decide what is in the best interests of shareholders on this important subject. Traditional poison pills have been defended with the argument that directors can generally be trusted to act in the shareholders' interest, and if they do not, they can be replaced by the shareholders with other directors. Adoption of "dead hand" poison pills, however, is different.We believe that it has the 2 effect of "entrenching" the current board by coercing shareholders to vote for incumbent directors to preserve the possibility of redemption of the pill. Their intended effect in our view is to preclude proxy contests for corporate control, which are an appropriate means to challenge incumbent management. We believe that the right of shareholders freely to elect a board of directors with full power to represent the shareholders' interests is the foundation-stone of good corporate governance. Yet this Board has unilaterally deprived shareholders of what is, in our opinion, their only real protection against a board that acts against their interests -- the ability to freely elect a board of their choosing with full powers to represent them in all respects. By supporting this resolution, shareholders can protect the value of their investment by sending a message to the Company that we value our right to elect a Board that is prepared and able to represent shareholder interests on all proper matters; and that we will not support unilateral actions by the Board that restrict our ability to meaningfully exercise our voting rights. EX-99.3 4 ARTICLE 1 Exhibit 3 TIAA-CREF URGES LUBRIZOL SHAREHOLDERS TO STRIKE DOWN POISON PILL TIAA-CREF announced today that it has written to fellow shareholders of The Lubrizol Corporation (NYSE: LZ), urging them to support TIAA-CREF's shareholder proposal requesting the Lubrizol board to redeem the company's "dead hand" poison pill defense. The letter also encourages Lubrizol shareholders to withhold their votes on Lubrizol's director nominees. "In light of Lubrizol's poor performance in recent years and the unwillingness of its management to address our concerns regarding Lubrizol's dead hand pill, we felt it was very important to bring this issue to the attention of our fellow shareholders," said Peter C. Clapman, TIAA-CREF's senior vice president and chief counsel, Investments. The letter, which was signed by Mr. Clapman, states TIAA-CREF's belief that "Lubrizol's directors have wrongfully usurped shareholder power for themselves." As support for its position, TIAA-CREF points out that "dead hand poison pills have been declared illegal in Delaware, the state in which the majority of U.S. public companies are incorporated." Lubrizol's efforts to omit TIAA-CREF's proposal from its proxy statement were rebuffed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. TIAA-CREF, which own 967,000 shares or 1.6% of Lubrizol's common stock, states in its letter that "Lubrizol's vigorous effort to keep our proposal out of its proxy statement illustrates management's extraordinary disdain for shareholder interests. Therefore, we intend to `send a message' to Lubrizol's board of directors that its actions 2 are unacceptable by withholding our votes on Lubrizol's director nominees. We encourage you to do the same." Shareholders with questions can contact Ken Bertsch, TIAA-CREF's director of corporate governance, at (212) 916-4972, or John Wilcox of Georgeson & Company Inc., TIAA-CREF's advisor, at (212) 440-9800. Media inquiries can be e-mailed to Tom Pinto, TIAA-CREF's Media Relations Director, at tpinto@tiaa-cref.org. -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----