Deals & Developments

Wire House Merger. Many a brokerage firm is expected to merge with the coming of 1932. Last week a harbinger of the movement came with the proposal to form Fenner, Beane & Ungerleider with 48 branches, twelve correspondents, second biggest wire house in the land.* Component firms are Fenner & Beane and Samuel Ungerleider & Co. The former was organized in 1917 in New Orleans and has retained the reputation of being an important cotton and grain house, conducting an active securities business at the same time. It will contribute 39 branches to the new firm. Samuel Ungerleider & Co. was formed in Cleveland in 1920 by "Ohio Sani" Ungerleider. It moved its main office to Manhattan in 1926. In 1929 the firm formed an investment trust, Ungerleider Financial, recently bought by Atlas Utilities Corp.

Benenson Foreclosed. Grigori Benenson, rich Russian, had ambitions towards a monumental record in Manhattan real estate. For years he conducted quiet private operations. And, as president of New York Dock Co., he supervised the extensive real estate holdings of that company. Last winter he attempted to sell New York Dock some property on lower Broadway, started a battle in which he was defeated.

Last week it became clear why President Benenson wished to sell the property to New York Dock. Benenson City Terminal Co. was unable to meet a $2,451,000 bond maturity and a foreclosure was ordered. Under the auctioneer's hammer, wielded by ubiquitous Joseph Paul Day, went the 34-story Benenson office building at No. 165 Broadway, two adjacent parcels. The total winning bids were $23,775,779 or only $1,815,000 more than existing prior liens.

*Any house with an out-of-town branch connected by direct wire is a "wire house." Size depends upon volume, hence ratings are unofficial. Considered biggest of wire houses is E. A. Pierce & Co. Logan & Bryan, potent in Chicago and the Far West, has been rated second largest.

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