(2 of 2)
Tightfisted Buyers. It wasn't easy. Expansion-minded Sunset was saddled with several white-elephant projects and mountainous debts ($130 million last June). To reduce that burden, Rozet persuaded lenders to stretch out some loans and cancel others in return for undeveloped acreage. Last November he put $50 million of Sunset's realty holdings up for auction in Los Angeles, but buyers proved so tightfisted that he accepted bids for only $6,000,000 worth. That netted Sunset a mere $300,000 above the $5,700,000 debt on the properties involved. But the company still had some useful assets, including profitable gas and oil wells, a thriving residential project near San Diego and $17 million worth of losses on its books that Commonwealth can carry forward to reduce its income tax liability on future profits.
With Sunset thankfully stripped of most of its money-losing ventures, Commonwealth is eagerly looking ahead to expansion in oil, motion pictures and service industries for its next growth. As a start, the company agreed last month to buy Hollywood's Television Enterprises Corp., a privately owned maker of low-budget films. Since the divorce plan was divulged, Sunasco shares have gone from a December low of $7.63 on the New York Stock Exchange to $9.38 last week. For sheer corporate melodrama, Rozet's rescue might make a film itself.