New Man at Allegheny

It was a black week for the wheelers and dealers of Texas. Nineteen months ago, promising the stockholders a better deal, Dallas-based John Murchison and his brother Clint Jr. won control of huge Alleghany Corp., the Manhattan holding company that controls the New York Central and Investors Diversified Services of Minneapolis, the nation's largest ($4 billion in assets) mutual fund complex. Last week, as abruptly as he had appeared on the scene, John Murchison resigned as president of Alleghany. In as his replacement went Bertin C. Gamble, 64, a Minneapolis merchant who has shown an uncommon aptitude for wheeling and dealing himself.

Back In. John Murchison. 41, had a simple explanation for his exit: "After a while you get tired of hitting your head against a brick wall." The brick wall was New Jersey Financier Allan P. Kirby, 70, whom the Murchison brothers had ousted from control of Alleghany but who still owns a potent 35% of the company's shares. Last summer, when it became painfully apparent that Kirby could and would block all their plans to revamp Alleghany, the Murchisons began looking for a buyer. Up popped Gamble, for whom Alleghany's prime attraction was its I.D.S. holdings. Thirteen years ago. Gamble sold to Alleghany his controlling interest in I.D.S. just before its shares began to skyrocket. He has never forgiven himself. Says Gamble: "I made a million on the deal and missed $250 million."

As price of his readmission, Gamble has bought 1,500,000 shares of Alleghany stock from the Murchisons and has an option to buy 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 shares from them. (He also has an option to buy 100,000 shares of their I.D.S. stock for $24-$25 million.) Since the Murchisons bought Alleghany at about $14 per share and sold to Gamble for $9, they have already lost $7,500000 on the deal.

Money from Spares. Gamble got his real start in business selling Model Ts to Minnesota farmers. Discovering that the big profits lay in spare parts, Gamble and his friend, the late Phil Skogmo, teamed up to open an auto-supply store. Since then, Gamble-Skogmo, Inc. has blossomed into a 354-store hardware chain that last year grossed $140.9 million.

Since World War II, Gamble has invested heavily in Canada, now controls three chains of variety stores there as well as 41% of Investors Syndicate of Canada, the country's largest investment combine. Last week, besides moving into Alleghany, Gamble was in the process of laying out $12 million to buy Stedman Bros. Ltd.. which operates 350 variety stores, mostly in eastern Canada. Gamble's aim is to convert these stores, as well as his own, into discounters.

Tips from Washington. In making his way onward and upward, Gamble has been unintentionally helped by the U.S. Justice Department. Two years ago, when the trustbusters forced Gamble to sell out of the Western Auto Supply Co.. he turned a $25 million profit on the deal. Last year, when he was forced to sell Walker & Co.. a billboard advertising outfit, he made $4,000,000. These windfalls helped give him the cash necessary to swing the Alleghany deal, but now the SEC is nosing around Gamble-Skogmo, wondering if it should not be classified as an investment company rather than a retail chain.

Gamble is understandably mum about his plans at Alleghany. Presumably he is gambling that he can make friends with Kirby and thus get the opportunity to run Alleghany with a free hand. But making friends with Kirby, a proud and implacable man, may prove no easier for Gamble than it was for the Murchisons.

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