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Up a Few Notches. That last setback only emphasized LTV's mounting difficulties. Early this year Troy V. Post, a Dallas insurance millionaire and longtime patron of Ling's, began agitating for a radical shake-up in the conglomerate. A collector of antique clocks as well as modern corporations, Post merged his holding company, Greatamerica Corp., with LTV in 1968. In return for their shares, Greatamerica stockholders got a package of LTV debentures and stock warrants; but each $1,000 debenture is now worth only $150. LTV's stock plunged from around $100 a share at the time of the acquisition to a low of $8.37 last week. Post put himself on the LTV board in February. When the first quarter ended with a $6.5 million loss and there was no turnaround in sight, Post's patience became shorter. Banker Stewart, 44, who was elected to the board just last month, joined with Post to force Ling's ouster.
"It was this simple," says one of the directors. "The first thing at the meeting, Bob Stewart got up and said he was speaking for all of the banks and lenders. They were so concerned over the situation and the outlook for the company that they insisted a change be made−that Stewart go in as chairman. Bob said that the banks had reached a point where they were ready to pull out−ready to recall their notes−if some big change weren't made immediately. Jim took it like a man and went up a few notches in my estimation."
Dallas Worries. Ling was not the only one to take a beating. Later in the meeting, a procession of vice presidents marched in, one by one, to share in the bitter medicine. Each announced how many people he had on his staff and how many he was going to fire. On the next day, 64 out of 160 headquarters staff members were dropped. LTV employs some 25,000 people in the Dallas area, and city fathers are frankly worried about the future of the company. In the last quarter of 1969, LTV Electrosystems laid off one-third of its 1,600 employees. In the past four months, LTV Aerospace has dropped 5,000 workers in Dallas.
The LTV board itself was pruned from 20 to 14 directors, and each of those remaining has or represents a direct investment in the company. For example, E. Grant Fitts, the president of Gulf Life Holding Co., is accountable to his stockholders for LTV securities that once had a value of some $34 million but are now worth only about $8.8 million. The word around headquarters last week was that Braniff Airways President Harding Lawrence, husband of Adwoman Mary Wells Lawrence, will be a powerful figure on the new LTV board.
Balky Judge. LTV must repay $55 million in interest to its banks next January and an equal amount next July; a primary problem of the new board is meeting those installments. Last week LTV announced that it expected to prepay up to $47 million of the debt "in the near future." The money will come from the sale of Wilson Sporting Goods, which was disposed of in February. Discussions have also been going on with several possible purchasers of Braniff Airways and Okonite Co., two sizable pieces of LTV that Ling agreed to sell in return for the Justice Department's withdrawal of its J & L antitrust suit. Those sales could be held up, however, by Federal Judge Louis Rosenberg, who will begin hearings next week in Pittsburgh to satisfy himself that the settlement will be in the public interest.