A FIVE-MILLION DEAL.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXX, Issue 4060, 29 December 1919, Page 2

A FIVE- MILLION DEAL.

♦- —~— FOOTBALLER TO MILLIONAIRE.

I,t was officially announced in October (reports the "Daily News") that Mr John Slater, of John Slater (Ldndon), Limited, had acquired from'Mr Clarance C. Hatry, managing director of the Commercial Bank of Londou, Liimtedi the controlling interest in Amalgamated Industrials, Limited. This deal involves in all a sum of #5,000,000. Amalgamated Industrials will retain the full controlling interest of all the ordinary shares of its present main assets, including the Clyde Shipbuilding, Engineering Company,Limi.ted, the hematite pig-iron and coal by-products business of William Whitwcll and Co., Limited, and the cotton mills of the North End Spinning Company, Limited, of Bplton. The company will-become substantially interested in the following important undertakings . the two large shipbuilding yards .of Murdoch and Murray., Limited, and Ferguson Brothers, on the Clyde; the new Haden Collieries, the Berry Hill Colleries, the business of steam trawler owners and fish merchants of Kelsall Bros. and Beeching, Limited, besides a con- ! trolling interest in £he International ; Marine Insurance Company and the City Life Insurance Company, Limited, as- well as Mr Slater's own firm of John Slater (London), Limited, which owns a large number of shipping lines. Professional Footballer to Millionaire Befliind the story of this five million deal lies the romance of a professional footballer's sudden rise to fame as a millionaire. Mr Slater—Jack Slater, as he was familiarly known in the football world—won renown throughout the country several years ago as a fullback for Bolton Wanderers. But ne was also known—more particularly, in the North—as a keen and accomplished sportsman. He was a fair cricketer, making j his mark as a bowler. It was as a | footballer, however, that he was best i known, A few trials as a reserve nwi't | in the famous Bolton .team, and he speedily won his way into the First League team, and proved a safe and formidable full-back. But "Jack" Slater had also commercial ambitions, and these have now culminated in his taking over from Mr C. C. Hatry, managing director of the Commercial Bank of Lon- | don, the octnrolling interest in Amal-, gamated Industries., Ltd—a deal which involves many important firms. ! His intention is to increase the capij tal from £3,000,000 to £$,000,000 "i order to merge his own interests 1 in the concern. The ex-footballer is still a young man —not yet out'of his thirties. He began as a junior in a Bolton colliery office, and at the age of twenty was head of the coal business of Messrs Adam Bromley and Sons. Since then he has acquired interests in scores of industries, ranging from cotton spinning to deep-sea trawling. "Ever since I went into business," he says, "I made up my mind that the right and successful .thing was to control an undertaking which comprised the complete business circle. The great circle of undertakings, t.o my mind, is this : Coal, iron, steel, shipbuilding, ship-owning, coal exporting, timber exporting, "and mercantile insurance. We do all that now. Every stage of the circle is under our control. I believe, too, in one man holding'all the'strings in his own hand. "One other stage is necessary *o make the business circle final and complete—banking. That will come : I intend to get that." "Jack" Slater now employs over 20,000.000 people.. He lives very simply in his house in Lyndhurst Road, Hampstead. "I believe," he says, "in putting money from dividends back into the business ■-rather than making a splash.'^ ,