Cock-a-doodle

In a handsome, 36-page booklet, Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser last week gave the public its first good look at his complex industrial empire and the way he controls it. That empire, the booklet explained, had now grown to 44 plants, producing 141 different products and chalking up annual sales of $500 million. It did not tell how much profit the empire makes.

But through his family's investment and operating company, Henry J. Kaiser Co., Kaiser holds 100% control of Kaiser Steel Corp., which owns the big $123 million Fontana steel plant, his biggest moneymaker. The next best moneymaker, Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp., is controlled (49.7%) by the Henry J. Kaiser Co. and another investment company, Kaiser Industries, Inc. Between them they also control four other profitable companies: Permanente Cement Co., with a 30.4% stock interest; Kaiser Metal Products Inc. (55%), Kaiser Community Homes (50%), and Consolidated Builders Inc. (22.5%). On the other hand, the two companies own only 9.5% interest in the money-losing, automaking Kaiser-Frazer Corp.

In short, it looked as if Kaiser had put most of his own eggs in the right baskets and kept a tight hold on the handles.

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