Brunswick Finds a Boatbuilder

Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., which has diversified from bowling into school and sports equipment, has been looking for a boatbuilder. It lost out on Chris-Craft Corp., the nation's largest motorboat maker, to NAFI Corp., which is controlled by Wall Street's Shields & Co. (TIME, Feb. 15). After helping to close the Chris-Craft deal, famed Yachtsman Cornelius ("Corny") Shields Sr., a Shields & Co. partner, pondered a way to see Brunswick into the boat business. As a director of the Owens Yacht Co., the nation's No. 2 builder of pleasure crafts (1959 sales: $15.3 million), Shields set about bringing the two together. This week Brunswick announced that, through an exchange of stock worth $16 million, it would take over Owens Yacht Co. The four Owens brothers (Charles, Norman, John and William), who own 70% of the stock, will receive $11.2 million worth of Brunswick stock.

Under the contract, Brunswick will exchange two shares of its stock for each seven shares of the Owens' stock. Non-family owners of the remaining 30% of Owens stock have a chance at the same terms. Last year Owens produced more than 7,000 wood and fiber-glass boats, ranging from 14 ft. to 35 ft. and up to $18,000 in price. Operating as a division of Brunswick, Baltimore-based Owens will remain under the family's management, is expected to expand its fiber-glass-boat operations, now 40% of its annual sales volume.

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