‘ ibe as CastlégarNews November 13.1986 BUSINESS Campeau celebrating big business coup TORONTO (CP) — Robert Campeau is planning a black tie affair of a few New York stars, some politicians, a scattering of movers and shakers. However, it's difficult to know who else might turn up at a party thrown by a man who counts Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney among his friends. He's thinking of holding it at New York's Metro- politan Museum of Art, with some of the world’s most famous artworks as a backdrop. Robert Campeau has finally arrived He's celebrating the biggest business coup of his career — the largest acquisition accomplished in the United States by a Canadian. He recently reached an agreement to end a takeover battle and acquire for $3.6 billion US the New York retail giant Allied Stores Corp., a company several times larger than his own Toronto-based real estate development company, Campeau Corp. It's a long way for Campeau to come from the days when the parties he gave every Christmas in a 7,000-seat Ottawa auditorium were for the familes who bought the most bungalows he built It’s a long way for the poor French Canadian boy. youngest of seven children, who was raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Sudbury, Ont., and who left school in Grade 8 to take a job as a machinist with the giant mining company, Inco Ltd. ADMITS ENVY “I once thought a house with an indoor toilet was palace,” he was quoted as saying in a 1962 interview “And I hated the people who lived in them.” Today, the dining room in his Toronto home can seat 300. He was famous in 1962 for having built one of every 10 Ottawa houses and for his running feud with the city's mayor, Charlotte Whitton, who once snapped: “When I look at his houses, I think perhaps nuclear bombardment might not be such a terrible thing after all.” Campeau's business acumen is extraordinary He has a sense for what will sell — back in 1961 he was installing dishwashers in all the houses he built He's often been ahead of his time. Years ago, he had a run-in with a planning department because he'd modi fied an apartment to accommodate a handicapped person When he built Toronto's luxury Harbor Castle Hilton Hotel in the mid-"70s he included specially decorated suites for professional women — well before pollsters screed the business woman's increasing economic clout Today, retail analysts say New York's financial community is taking notice of his Allied acquisition because it represents a change in the traditional relation ship h ing centre pers and retailers. EXPANDS BUSINESS Campeau said it'll allow him to greatly expand his shopping centre construction in the United States, pre sumably because he can undertake new projects assured of tenants in Allied’s 27 retail stores, such as Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers. It would be understatement to call ambitious. His house construction business began in 1949 after he sold the house he built for his own family for what in those days was a magnificent profit of $2,300. It took another 10 years before the Campeaus owned their own home. Today, at 62, when he's asked}if he's thinking of retirement he just laughs as ij credulous at the question “No, it’s a long time away, I'm ’& very young man,” he chuckles in a voice mellowed with a French Canadian accent that has softened over the years but vanished. Campeau said the takeover “was a big experience for me but it was also very refreshing for me to work in the climate of a total private-enterprise community.” Campeau never Corporate boards differ TORONTO (CP) -— Can- adian corporate boards are bigger, paid less, work fewer hours and contain more women than their counter- parts in the United States, On average, Canadian boards have 16 directors who work 86 hours annually and earn $8,822 US a year, said the study by KornFerry In- ternational Ltd. In the United States, an average of 14 board members work 114 hours a year and earn $19,544 US annually or 60 per cent more than their Canadian counterparts, the study said. It said 59 per cent of Canadian boards have at least one woman compared with 45 per cent of US. boards. KornFerry, which survey- ed 160 companies in Canada and about 500 U.S. firms in August and September, said 80 per cent of U.S. board chairmen are their company’s chief executive officer com- pared to only 52 per cent in Canadian cases. The study said Canadian boards are much more likely to have lawyers and non-Can- adian citizens as members while U.S. firms have strong Boeing boosts business By TONY VAN ALPHEN Canadian Press TORONTO — The roar of rivet guns, punch presses and lathes rarely stops at the sprawling de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd. plant in northwest Toronto these days. They can't make airplanes fast enough. And that has fuelled the debate over whether the company’s new boss, Boeing Co., is making a difference or if Ottawa gave away the store when it sold de Havilland to the U.S. aerospace giant for an initial $90 million — less than the price of one of Boeing’s 747 jumbo jets. Since the controversial sale last January, de Havilland officials say Boeing's support has clinched deals under negotiation before the purchase and will boost business further to help the money-losing company back to profit- ability. But there's a school of thought that still believes the sale was a “colossal blunder” that took something special from the Canadian economy at a time when the company was poised for a turnaround De Havilland — which traces its roots in Canada to a railway canning shed on the current 38-hectare site in 1928 became a Crown corporation in 1974. It reported steady growth in earnings and revenue until the early 1980s when the bottom fell out of the aircraft market. The company, along with others, took a nosedive and suffered hugh losses. During de Havilland’s dark days, Ottawa sank $830 million into the firm. The company gradually recovered and reduced its losses although ongoing development costs of new models remain steep. But shortly after taking power in 1984, the Con servative government, flush with the free enterprise spirit, decided to sell the company, arguing it would remove a millstone from taxpayers’ necks. Seattle-based Boeing, the largest airplane manufacturer in the world, won the bidding derby by paying $90 million immediately and promised an additional $65 million spread over three installments. But depending on Boeing's purchases from Canadian suppliers during the next 15 years, Ottawa may write off the $65 million. Paul Nisbet, who tracks the aerospace industry for Prudential-Bache Securities Inc. in New York, says he thinks Canadian taxpayers got a good deal although Boeing didn’t spend “any more than the cost of a 747.” Current price tag on a new 747 jet is about $100 million US. “The company will be paying taxes rather than Canadian taxpayers paying for it,” he said in a telephone interview from New York. Michael Cassidy, a New Democratic Party MP and a vigorous critic of the sale, said de Havilland itself wasn't to blame for the financial woes. De Havilfand’s holding company, Canada Development Investment Corp., didn't pay enough attention and mis. managed the firm “terribly,” Cassidy said. Cassidy said Ottawa deliberately made the company look bad to win public support and that ultimately reduced its market value. Although de Havilland could not give accurate sales figures for the year, the company said it shattered monthly records for commercial planes in June with 50 orders. repr ion from the aca. demic community. STATE OF TRANSITION KornFerry, based in New York and Los Angeles with 37 offices around the world, said that in the last two years it has found the U.S. corp orate board has been in a state of transition. “Landmark legal decisions have created a sense of crisis in the boardroom and the increased accountability and potential liability of directors is making it more and more difficult for corporations to attract and retain qualified outside directors,” the study said. Conair: A New Twist Curling & Styling Brush 595 Brush 0° 1OXC. Reg. $9.95. Rebate of $2.00 $ Plus Bonus Rebate $2.00. Priced ot Hot No. 301. Hot Colors. lor $12.99 Rebate of $2.00. Priced ot NOTE Coupons must be sent into manvtocturer for REBATE Conair High Energy ’ “ Styling 51 Bikini Shaver... Shower Massage:.:-::; °42°° Shower Massag Gifts to help keep that beautiful person . . . beautiful! 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