Big Wheel from Akron

One of the fastest-rising stocks on the American Exchange has been Bellanca Corp., onetime planemaker. From a low of 4 3/8 in 1954 it soared to a peak of 30 1/2 before it eased off to 20 a few weeks ago. Much of the rise came after Sydney Albert, 49, of Akron, a promoter and juggler of corporations, got control of Bellanca 16 months ago. By outright purchase or trades for Bellanca stock, he gathered in dozens of small companies, paid out enough stock dividends to keep Bellanca stock going up and its holders happy. Few seemed worried that Bellanca lost $284,464 last year--until last week. Then the worries over the financial condition of Bellanca and Promoter Albert grew so great that the price of Bellanca stock collapsed.

From 20 it had slid to 14 1/2. Then, in one day, it dropped another 5 3/4 points to 9. Next trading day, the rush to sell was so great that the exchange had to stop trading in the stock; when trading was resumed, it slid to a low of 5 3/4. At week's end Bellanca had rallied a bit and was up to 7 3/4. Stockholders had taken a bad beating, but the big loser was Albert, who had held 950,000 shares when the slide started. His paper loss: about $20 million.

Stolen Horse. Long after the horse had been stolen, the American Stock Exchange and SEC rushed to the stable, began to investigate to find out the why. The reason was plain. To finance some of his corporate purchases, Albert had borrowed heavily from South Bend, Ind.'s Associates Discount Corp. When Albert fell a year behind in his payments, the Discount Corp. took judgment a fortnight ago on $1,372,622 in Albert loans, tying up his personal bank accounts. When word got out that Albert could not pay his bills,

Bellanca stockholders began to sell. As the stock dropped, four brokerage houses, which held thousands of shares of Bellanca stock in Albert's margin accounts, were forced to dump it on the market as Albert's margin fell below the 70% required by the Federal Reserve Board. In all, 350,000 of Albert's shares were sold in a few days.

Albert's fall had been far faster than even his fast rise. He got his start by trading his holdings in L. Albert & Son, a family rubber-mill and plastic-molding machinery business that he inherited from his father (1954 gross: $1,246,000), for 82% of the 1,300,900 shares of Bellanca, then a corporate shell which had some aircraft-parts contracts. Thus, he got a listing on the American Stock Exchange, and a ready market for stock. Albert promptly bought or traded into major interests in a grab bag of some 70 companies, including control of Waltham Watch Co. and Pierce Governor, of which he became chairman.

Find the Assets. His specialty was to find small but solid companies that had undervalued assets on the books, i.e., a warehouse or machinery which had been fully depreciated, thus were on the books for a nominal value of $1, although worth far more. By selling off these assets, Albert picked up cash, which he used to buy more companies when he could not trade stock.

At week's end Albert was reportedly dickering with a New York group either to take over Bellanca or bail him out with cash. He had lost his holdings in Waltham Watch and resigned as chairman of Pierce Governor, which promptly proclaimed that it was in sound condition. Only Albert knew what shape Bellanca was in, but even he was not sure. When an aide was asked what properties Albert still owns, he replied: "I don't know, and I don't think Mr. Albert knows."

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