Word: rfc
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Shrewd old Henry J. Kaiser and his son Edgar never put much of their own fortune into Kaiser Frazer Corp., their automobile manufacturing company which Edgar runs. Kaiser-Frazer lost some $52 million during its seven years of existence, and is $48.4 million in hock to the RFC. Old Henry put most of the family's millions into the highly profitable Kaiser Steel, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical and Permanente Cement companies, controlled by his personal holding company, the Henry J. Kaiser...
...with RFC insistently pressing for payment, Old Henry Kaiser had to decide whether to let K-F go under or take the risk of propping it up with more of his own money...
...lasted for barely 5,000 miles, is now made mostly by the low-temperature process that turns out hard-wearing "cold rubber" (TIME, June 6, 1949). Synthetic competed so strongly that it drove natural rubber back down to 28? a Ib. (GR-S sells at 22?). Now, says the RFC, there is no question that synthetic in private hands could compete strongly enough with natural rubber to maintain the minimum production needed for national security. In fact, there is an "imminent need" for even more synthetic capacity...
High-Stake Poker. Since the 29 plants are not independent units but draw raw materials from butadiene and styrene plants, the logical plan is to sell the plants as economic packages, says RFC. Also recommended by RFC: negotiated sales rather than competitive bidding to keep rubber companies from knocking down the prices by agreement on bids...
...Government and the prospective buyers. One precedent: the $10.9 million copolymer plant in Louisville went for $4,187,000 to Goodrich in 1947. The industry, which naturally wants to get the plants as cheaply as possible, points out that the plants have had ten years of depreciation, that the RFC itself carries them at book value of only $172.6 million. Furthermore, for three months the industry has been breaking into a rash of sensational claims for new synthetic processes which would, supposedly, make the existing plants obsolete. Goodrich announced a process that could make rubber 50 times as fast...