Word: wolfsons
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Raider Louis Wolfson, who parlayed a Jacksonville junkyard into a $240 million empire and attempted to gain control of giant Montgomery Ward, sounded a general retreat last week. He is getting out of Montgomery Ward and selling all his 59,000 shares (at an expected profit of about $750,000). Furthermore, he is thinking of selling the Highway Trailer Co., the Marion Power Shovel Co. and its subsidiary, the Osgood Co., all controlled by Merritt-Chapman & Scott, which Wolfson runs as chairman, president and chief stockholder (more than 157,000 out of 5,374,360 shares...
...this year four other members of the Merritt-Chapman & Scott family, picked up by Wolfson during his empire-building days, have gone on the block: Newport Steel, Shoup Voting Machine, Utah Radio Products, Nesco (house-wares). Last week, totting up the results, the Wall Street Journal figured that Wolfson may have lost on the deals. This was denied by Wolfson's business lieutenants, who contended the sales indeed had been profitable. Losses, if any, were only paper losses...
Need Money? But whether Louis Wolfson made or lost money-and his deals were so complicated that outsiders could hardly tell-the motive that led Wolfson to reverse himself and preside over liquidation of part of his empire was plain: he needed cash. In seven years of fast dealing he had transformed Merritt-Chapman & Scott from an old-line marine construction and salvage company into a burgeoning industrial complex (paints, chemicals, steel, truck trailers, shipbuilding). Assets soared 138% to $239.5 million; the gross went up 800% to $360.3 million. But as the empire grew, so did its financial needs. Wolfson...
PROMOTER LOUIS WOLFSON, who built Merritt-Chapman & Scott into a $135 million diversified corporation, is beginning to prune back. He plans to sell a profitable subsidiary, Newport Steel (1955 earnings: $626,287), to Chicago's Acme Steel Co. Previously sold Merritt-Chapman subsidiaries in '56: Nesco Division (house-wares), Utah Radio Products, Shoup Voting Machine Corp...
CAPITAL TRANSIT CO., Washington's oft-troubled transportation system, which Financier Louis Wolfson milked of millions (TIME, June 25), will finally be sold. For $13.5 million, syndicate headed by Manhattan Real Estateman O. Roy Chalk has agreed to buy bus and streetcar line, is expected to take over next month when current franchise runs out. Originally, Chicago's National City Lines planned to buy, but later withdrew...