Word: wrighting
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...Curtiss-Wright is openly declaring its intention to make Kennecott sell off Carborundum, an abrasives manufacturer that Kennecott acquired only three months ago for $571 million. Curtiss-Wright might also be tempted to liquidate some of Kennecott's other properties...
With assets of only $349 million, compared with Kennecott's $2.7 billion, Curtiss-Wright, a maker of aerospace parts and industrial equipment, does not have the financial resources to make an outright tender offer for Kennecott. That would cost some $750 million. Curtiss-Wright even had to borrow from its banks to buy its 10% of Kennecott stock...
...Curtiss-Wright did make a peaceful effort last month to get minority representation on the Kennecott board. But Kennecott's dour and demanding chairman, Frank Milliken, 64, turned down the request. So T. Roland Berner, 67, Curtiss-Wright's chairman, declared war by nominating a slate headed by himself to take control. The rather geratic group includes George Moore, 72, former chairman of Citicorp; Robert Meyner, 69, former Governor of New Jersey; George Bunker, 70, former chairman of Martin Marietta; and Fred Kirby II, 58, chairman of Alleghany Corp. and Investors Diversified Services, the mutual fund concern. Curtiss...
Berner's strategy is similar to his attack on Curtiss-Wright in 1948. Management had been piling up cash; Berner, then a Wall Street lawyer, badgered it to distribute the hoard in a special dividend to shareholders. Curtiss-Wright refused, so Berner launched a proxy fight, forced the company to dispense dividends liberally and eventually had himself elected a director and chief executive...
...recent years Curtiss-Wright has not been a distinguished performer. Profits dropped from $19 million in 1976 to $16.3 million last year, while sales fell from $337 million to $310 million. Berner, a silver-thatched figure, has become something of a recluse. That is a stance he must now abandon; a proxy fight is a campaign for votes, and the attacker must be as much a politician as a businessman...