Word: millions
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...declare a $55-per-share dividend. When the payout is voted by a board filled with newcomers from another company that has just acquired control, eyebrows go up all around. Last week they were raised when Manhattan-based Great American Insurance Co. decided to dip into its $300 million surplus to distribute a total of about $171 million in securities. Reason: National General Corp., a Los Angeles-based moviemaker and would-be conglomerate, recently picked up 75% control of Great American Holding Corp., the fire and casualty insurance firm's parent holding company...
...insurance for at least a decade, mainly because it concentrated on personal fire and casualty policies, a competitive area plagued by rising losses. Like many other hard-pressed insurance concerns, Great American concentrated on making profits in the stock market, where it accumulated a portfolio worth about $310 million-more than half its total assets of $567 million. "It's ridiculous to leave that much capital lying around when money is so expensive," says Eugene V. Klein, National General's chairman. "There are sounder uses...
...dividend to finance some new mergers and acquisitions. Even with its surplus cut in half, Great American has more than the industrywide average of loss reserves in relation to its underwriting volume. "We did no milking," Klein insists. "We are staying in the insurance business. We paid about $500 million for the company, so obviously we aren't going to hurt ourselves. What many businessmen fail to keep in mind is that the proper utilization of capital is the cornerstone of U.S. industry." That, of course, is the standard justification for conglomerate corporations: their ability to make more productive...
...stevedoring, construction and quarrying also produce a disproportionate share of industrial deaths and injuries. The overall safety record of U.S. industry is far better than that of mining. Yet on-the-job accidents last year killed 14,000 and disabled 2,200,000 of the nation's 82 million workers. Another 5,000,000 suffered lesser work injuries or illnesses. Beyond the incalculable toll they took in pain and suffering, job-related accidents and ailments cost workers $1.5 billion in lost wages and deprived industry of $5 billion in production, an amount larger than the annual output...
Rebuffed in merger feelers toward Saint-Gobain, BSN quietly bought 10% of its competitor's 11.5 million shares. Then, in December, Riboud sprang his frontal attack. Backed by three big banking houses, BSN offered to exchange convertible debentures with a face value of $46 for Saint-Gobain common stock, then selling for $29. Such tactics, common in the U.S. and Great Britain, had never before been tried in France. Much to BSN's surprise, Saint-Gobain did not take long to fight back strongly...