BOISE -- Boise Cascade Corp. still has hope -- at least officially -- of collecting on its potential $300 million stake in a utility seized by the communist government of Cuba 25 years ago.
Through its acquisition of a New York corporation in 1969, Boise Cascade assumed possession of a federally certified financial claim against the Fidel Castro regime.
The acquired firm, Ebasco Industries, had owned Cuban Electric Co., which was expropriated by Cuba in 1960.
The assets claim has remained on Boise Cascade's books ever since the 1969 purchase. Each year, accountants dust off the file and the claim officially is reported in hope relations will soften between the United States and Cuba and negotiations can begin.
'We are not exactly sending someone to Cuba to become an emissary for something that may or may not ever bear fruit,' said Boise Cascade spokesman Doug Bartels.
'There is no indication today of any normalization of relations,' he noted. 'We have just said, 'Let's carry it.' We could drop it.'
Even if the wood products corporation eventually collects anythingon its interest in Cuban Electric, 'It would certainly be for something much less' than the $279.3 million, plus 6 percent interest since 1960, that has been certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, Bartels said.
Boise Cascade is merely the largest of several U.S. firms with claims involving Cuban Electric, he said.
And the Boise Cascade claim is just one of dozens listed by the Settlement Commission. An estimated total of $2 billion in U.S. corporate assets wasexpropriated by Castro's government after the Caribbean nation's revolution, the commission has said.
'It could be that claims totaling $2 billion could be discussed by the two countries' if diplomatic and economic ties ever are re-established, Bartels said.
Despite the gloomy prospect of recovering the Cuban Electric assets, Boise Cascade once tasted some success in regaining overseas holdings expropriated by a foreign power.
The Communist government in China expropriated Ebasco's Shanghai Power Co. holdings there in 1949, and Boise Cascade took over the claim when it merged with Ebasco, Bartels said.
Six years ago, after China warmed up to the United States, Boise Cascade collected several million dollars on its Ebasco claim, but the total was about one-fifth the amount of the original claim, Bartels said.
'When a settlement is made, it is normally considerably less than the actual amount of the claim,' he said.
