Rebuffed By Mt. Bachelor Board, Powdr Corp. Sets Sights on Individual Shareholders

Considering a counter offer is Eugene-based PapeGroup, the ski resort's largest shareholder, with 23% of outstanding shares. Randy Pape, who is president of Mt. Bachelor Inc. Pape was not available for comment last week, but has said recently he believes the ski resort should remain a Northwest-based company. The second-largest stockholder with 14% of outstanding shares is Beverly Healy, widow of Bill Healy, the founder of Mount Bachelor. Other significant shareholders include the Stevenson family of Bingen, Wash., and other members of the Healy family.

How each of the seven board members voted in denying the original offer is not being revealed, but it was a special committee of the board formed to explore a possible sale that solicited the original, rejected offer from Powdr Corp. Beverly Healy, Wallace Stevenson and his brother Rees comprised the special committee, but it is not known if they were the three votes in favor of the sale. Wallace Stevenson was the only member known to have been in favor of the sale. Healy has not publicly given her position, and neither has Benjie Gilchrist.

Approximately 200 private stockholders own around 1,400 shares in Mount Bachelor Inc., according to company records. At a stockholder meeting two weeks ago, Wallace Stevenson reportedly read a letter signed by a half-dozen supporters that called for the sale of the resort. Tom Healy, son of the resort's founder, also spoke in favor of a disposition to Powdr Corp., which reportedly would include the assumption of some $10 million in debt. Park City-based Powdr Corp owns Park City Mountain Resort and other ski areas in California and Nevada.

Meanwhile, one of the major lodging resorts that serve Mt. Bachelor, Inn of the Seventh Mountain, is seeing it's a goodly portion of its 262 units snapped up by Innspired LLC, a Eugene-based LLC founded by Douglas Cochrane and backed by a PapeGroup subsidiary. Cochrane is a major shareholder in FabTrol Systems Inc. in Eugene, which designs specialized software applications for the steel fabrication industry.

Formed last year, Innspired has reportedly scooped up 26 condominiums for an average price of $26,000, and has eyes on another 24 units, all of which the company plans to renovate. The company also wants to acquire and update the circa 1974 inn's convention center, as well as the restaurant building and ice rink. The company that owns the core areas is Seventh Mountain Management Inc. SMMI reportedly is in arrears on a $4-million note it signed at the time it purchased the property from San Francisco-based Moana Kauai Corp.