Word: kreugers
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Although by the early 1920's Swedish Match had a firm hold on the world's markets, Matchman Kreuger wished to make it impregnable. He saw an opportunity in the unsettled financial condition of most of the world, realizing that cash-poor nations would grant match monopolies in return for loans. The first loan was to Poland in 1925 and consisted of $6,000,000. Greece followed and then France offered a match monopoly for a loan of $75,000,000. This large financing was accomplished through the sale of $50.000,000 worth of International Match bonds...
...secured not by a direct monopoly but by an agreement to ban all Russian matches. Since Swedish makes a good 70% of all matches used in Germany the terms were satisfactory. Worry over the safety of this loan was known to be one of the things depressing Ivar Kreuger last week...
...company to the entirgroup was the original engineering and real estate firm of Kreuger & Toll, controlled by Class A voting shares capitalized at $50,000, the majority of which Ivar Kreuger held himself. This small amount of stock carried control of properties capitalized at over a billion dollars...
...Kreuger & Toll has many activities in addition to control of the match companies. It handles much of the financing the monopolies make necessary. It has a 20% interest in the Grangesberg Co. of Sweden, biggest iron producer in Europe, and an 80% interest in the Boliden gold mine in northern Sweden, thought to be the richest in the world. It owns Swedish Pulp Co. with 4,900,000 acres of fine forest, valuable power properties and rights. It controls financial institutions throughout Europe, including commercial and mortgage banks. A typical deal was its purchase of Sweden...
There was a central thought in the great conglomeration of Kreuger companies, although the very size of the enterprise made some conservative bankers keep away from it even before Depression. Making his fortune in matches, Ivar Kreuger decided to concentrate on basic industries with large, scattered consumption. His company had great cash resources and these had to be invested, kept fruitful. For this reason he bought control or made close affiliations with banks throughout the world, feeling that banks were in position to judge their countries' investment opportunities better than a foreign delegation of statisticians. They also could handle...