Florida's Big Dealer

Victor Emanuel, who built his Avco Corp. into a $165 million business by a series of complicated financial deals, last week wound up a new one. As part of his program to concentrate Avco on home-appliance manufacture, he sold control of his New York Shipbuilding Corp., third biggest in the U.S., for $2,000,000 cash. The buyer: Louis Wolf son, a 41-year-old Florida financier who could probably teach even a master like "V.E." a few tricks in turning a deal.

In the last 20 years, big-dealing Louis Wolfson has built up from scratch an empire with assets he estimates at $100 million plus. Among them: Manhattan's famed building firm of Merritt-Chapman & Scott (Wolfson is chairman), a chain of 21 Florida theaters, Washington's Capital Transit Co., which controls the streetcars and buses in the capital.

On New York Shipbuilding, his golden touch began working fast. He paid $16.50 a share for 124,700 shares (62.4%) of the voting stock, which last week was selling around 20, giving Wolfson and associates a paper profit of $350,000.

End Runs. Handsome Lou Wolfson has been scoring ever since his days as a football star at Jacksonville High School and the University of Georgia. He quit school in his senior year (1932) to organize the Florida Pipe & Supply Co. with his father and older brother. His brothers, Sam, Sol, Cecil and Nathan, became his partners, and they rode the crest of the wave of the expanding chemical and pipeline industries.

By World War II's end, Wolfson was able to plunk down $1,000,000 to buy the war-surplus Tampa Shipbuilding Co. Within two years, he and his brothers liquidated it for a profit of $4,000,000. They also liquidated the supply company for another $2,500,000 profit. With wealthy business friends, they organized a "Florida syndicate" to buy control of Merritt-Chapman & Scott. Wolfson, who grew up with Politician Fuller Warren, contributed $100,000 to Warren's successful campaign for governor, and later, on a low competitive bid, won a contract to build a $3,000,000 bridge for the state. But after a furore was raised over Warren's campaign contributions, Wolfson says he dissociated himself from Warren and "the whole mess."

Golden Trolley. Three years ago, Wolf son's syndicate raised $2,100,000 to buy control (45.6%) of Washington's transportation system, found it a gold mine. The stock had been paying only 50-c- a year, but Wolfson's group has since paid out a total of $22.60 in dividends. The stock has soared, with a paper profit to the group of more than $6,000,000. Some critics thought the profit came out of money needed for new equipment, and spoke darkly of "scuttle & run" operations. Wolfson blithely answered that the dividends should have been distributed before. Wolfson's simple secret of success: "I work hard."

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