Off the Sidelines

As president of Transamerica Corp., close cropped, drawling Sam Husbands, 59, not only runs the world's biggest bank holding company, but a profitable sideline: insurance. The sidleine was set up by Transamerica's late great founder, A. P. Giannini, when he discovered how easy it was to sell insurance to people who came to his banks. Last year Transamerica's three insurance companies earned $5.6 million, nearly as much as the company earned ($7.9 million) through its majority-controlled banks. Encouraged, early this year Husbands picked up a fourth insurance company.*

But Transamerica, which could insure its customers against death or fire, still owned no casualty insurance company Last week, Husbands bought Philadelphia's Manufacturers' Casualty Insurance Co. and its subsidiary, Manufacturers' Fire Insurance Co. for $6.3 million. With the new companies, which last year took in $11 millions in premiums, Husbands expected Transamerica's sideline to become more of a main line than ever.

* Paramount Fire Insurance Co.; the others: Pacific National Fire Insurance, Premier Insurance Co., Occidental Life Insurance.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.