ONASSIS’S PLANS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 17

ONASSIS’S PLANS

Control Over

Monte Carlo (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, December 2. Aristotle Onassis, “uncrowned king of Monaco,” is bidding for complete control over Monte Carlo before the end of the year, according to the “News Chronicle”. The divorce suit, filed by his wife in New York did not seem to be distracting him from his business empire, which included more than 100 companies, the newspaper said.

He was the main shareholder in the Societe des Bains de Mer, which ran the casino and gambling tables at Monte Carlo, the town’s best hotels and the opera house. He owned 420,000 of the one million shares and needed 80,000 more—plus one—to become the absolute boss.

Already on the Paris* stock exchange, the shares had shot up from £1 16s to £2 10s.

The newspaper said Mr Onassis wanted to bring off the Monte Carlo deal quickly for several reasons. One was that it was pow his biggest money-making concern. Gross profits for the financial year to last March totalled £2,200,000, the highest since World War I. The net profit amounted roughly to £1 million. Another was that his tanker fleet, because of the drop in freight rates, was losing money as was his newly-founded Olympic Airways, which had to buy new aircraft.

The “Daily Telegraph” said Mr Onassis wanted control so that he could carry out financial reconstruction when the new French “heavy” franc was introduced on January 1.