The Man Who Snatched Away a Meal

The occasion was scarcely expected to be lively. It was the annual shareholders' meeting, in Glasgow, of Scottish and Universal Investments Ltd.

(SUITS for short), the holding company for Sir Hugh Eraser's vast assembly of Scottish and British department stores. Nor did the chairman's report seem like a call for Scottish cheer. By paying out some $10 million, said Sir Hugh, he had acquired controlling interest in George Outram & Co., Ltd., a prosperous Glaswegian publishing house that had not really been for sale. But once they heard the expensive word, the SUITS shareholders burst out in un-Caledonian glee. "For he's a jolly good fellow," they sang, in tribute to the man who, by buying Outram, had succeeded in his assigned task of preventing the world's hungriest press lord from sitting down to his next chosen meal.

Landing in Edinburgh. The appetite belonged, of course, to Canadian-born Roy Thomson, 70, Lord Thomson of Fleet, who already owns more newspapers (113) than any other man. Perhaps because of his Scottish ancestry--his great-great-grandfather was born in Dumfriesshire--Thomson particularly fancies Scottish possessions. When his Canadian-based publishing empire crossed the Atlantic in 1954, it landed first in Edinburgh, where Thomson bought The Scotsman, a morning daily. Since then, between forays on Fleet Street, London's newspaper row, Thomson has added three more Scottish papers and an 80% interest in Scottish television to his empire. When Thomson made clear that he meant to buy up Outram, which publishes the Glasgow Herald (circ. 254,000), and half a dozen smaller papers, Outram's board became more determined than ever that their Scottish papers should be owned by Scots. Sir Hugh Fraser was brought in for the express purpose of figuring out the tactics that might keep Thomson at bay. A Glaswegian by birth and heir to the family drapery, Sir Hugh had already proved his business cunning by expanding his inheritance into a chain of 70 stores all over the United Kingdom. Until two months ago, Sir Hugh had little to do. Then Thomson abruptly bid $2.80 per share, in cash, for Outram stock--a figure about 60-c- above the market and one that set a price tag on Outram of $15 million. Before long Thomson raised his bid to $18 million. Invoking a Shade. Over the next two months, Roy Thomson confidently raised his offer to an apparently un- matchable $25 million. But by then, although Thomson did not know it, the battle was ended. Over the same period, in his capacity as head of SUITS, Sir Hugh had been quietly buying Outram stock. Now he was the owner of a controlling 51%. "If Sir Hugh Fraser has won," said Roy Thomson, with more vexation than grace, "the shareholders, Outram and Scotland itself will certainly have lost." But this was a minority view. "What most impresses the Scots," said London's Financial Times, "is that Sir Hugh is prepared to lose money in Scottish causes." Exulted Glasgow's weekly Investors Chronicle: "Shades of Bannockburn!"--thus invoking for all patriotic Scotsmen the glorious memory of Robert the Bruce's historic defeat of the British in 1314.

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