Buyers Wanted

When the first batch of RFC's assets went on sale last week as part of the plan to put the agency out of business, the results were disappointing. Of the 171 lots of local Government bonds, worth $9,283,784, only 98 lots were bid for, and some offers ran as low as 50-c- on the dollar. Bids for only 39 lots were accepted, netting RFC $1,492,982, about 93% of their face value. Said RFC Boss Kenton Cravens: "No assets will be disposed of at undue sacrifice. There will be no rummage sales."

To drum up sales, Cravens sent 20 RFC salesmen out on the road and negotiated with investment banking houses to underwrite the sale of $65 million worth of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad bonds. Cravens also hoped to get banks to form a national syndicate to take over most of the 4,327 business loans of less than $200,000, which would take too long to sell one by one.

Almost two-thirds of RFC's assets are business loans totaling $664,500,000, and Cravens thinks that 90% of them are readily marketable. RFC also has some other blue chips which should be easy to sell: $85.9 million in railroad securities, $45.5 million in securities of banks and trust companies, and $67.1 million worth of home mortgages. But some other assets, including a $48 million loan to the Philippines, $42.3 million in obligations taken over from the defunct Defense Homes Corp., $18.3 million in disaster-relief loans, will probably be turned over to the Treasury with no attempt made to sell them.

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