MacAndrews & Forbes history

1870: A MacAndrew & Forbes firm is founded in Newark, New Jersey.

The company at this point seems to be prospering, from R.S. Harrisons “History of MacAndrews and Forbes” he states that in 1880 profits were around £50,000 or around £4 million in today’s money! And during this period the company and its product becomes well established.

Although there was already an office in the Sparteles Buildings in Smyrna comprising of only 2 rooms and run by General Manager William Henry Cadoux 1840-1899, the head office was still at Sokia until 1893. It would appear that until 1881 when the Aydin Railway was opened, the distance up the valley for new factories to be built, was limited by the cost of local camel transport to Scala Nuova but once the railway was in operation then cheap shipping to Smyrna was possible.

Unfortunately John sadly dies 2 years later in 1901 a very rich man leaving over £52,000 in his will or £4.5million in today’s money.

There was also a lot of bad feeling generated amongst the MacAndrews family for his selling out to the Americans in 1902.

In 1906 the London office separates from the US and becomes MacAndrews and Forbes Ltd but still funded by the US and so still intimately linked.

David Forbes senior after founding the business in the US and having never married, returned to the UK and sadly dies a retired bachelor whilst living in a hotel in Bournemouth in 1918, leaving £12,400 (or £0.5million in today’s money) to Sarah Forbes the wife of young David, his nephew.

MacAndrews & Forbes had assets of $16.3 million and a net profit of $1.94 million in 1920.

Company sales rose as high as $12.66 million in 1927.

During the early war years the Forbes’s spent their time in Canada and the US eventually ending up at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, California where David died on the 15th January 1941 aged 72.

After many senior company positions but not with MacAndrews and Forbes he was elected as the Governor of the Bank of England and a Baronetcy in 1946.

MacAndrews & Forbes's sales reached a peak of $15.82 million in 1951.

In 1963 MacAndrews & Forbes began selling licorice-root mulch to the public, under the name Right Dress, within a 200-mile radius of Camden.

Insulation-board manufacturing ended in 1965, and the following year the company acquired the Philadelphia paperboard-coating facilities of the International Paper Co.

Rosenman and Katz purchased about 25 percent of the stock--a controlling interest--in 1967 and assumed management of the company, moving its headquarters to Philadelphia.

They also bought Wilbur Chocolate Co. of Lititz, Pennsylvania, a producer of cocoa mixes and chocolate coatings with annual sales of $21 million, for $5.7 million in 1968.

Of MacAndrews & Forbes's 1975 sales, chocolate accounted for 42 percent, textiles for 30 percent, and flavors (much the most profitable item) for 28 percent.

With the fading of the brief polyester boom, the textile division lost $1 million the following year and the company disposed of it in 1977, when total sales came to $110.06 million.

Following the shah's fall in 1978, they sought to sell the business.

An offer from Ronald Perelman, however, was most unwelcome (probably because of previous differences with his father) and in 1979 they sold their shares to Richard and Burton Koffman for $8.6 million.

Perelman persisted in seeking the company, and in 1980 purchased what amounted to a 22 percent share from the Koffmans for nearly $10 million.

In 1983, Perelman formed MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Inc.

Nine separate shareholder suits were fielded against the plan, but the company became fully his in March 1984.

MacAndrews next purchased Pantry Pride Inc., in June 1985.

He extended the company's wholesale market to Europe in 1986 by purchasing a French operation, Extraits Vegetaux et Derives, S.A., which had its own extraction plant and an established continental distribution network.

In October 1987, Perelman withdrew the last offer.

Through a series of transactions, Mafco Worldwide merged with and into Pneumo Abex Inc., a previously indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Abex incorporated in 1988.

Ownership of Compact Video Inc. was increased to 40% in 1989 after the buyout of Four Star International.

The bulk of New World's film and home video holdings were sold in January 1990 to Trans-Atlantic Pictures, a newly formed production company founded by a consortium of former New World executives.

MacAndrews & Forbes held 80 percent of First Gibraltar in 1991.

After MacAndrews & Forbes sold 130 First Gibraltar Bank branches to BankAmerica Corporation for $110 million in 1992, Perelman’s profit on his savings and loan transactions may have exceeded $1.2 billion.

Swelled by lucrative licensing deals, the company’s stock was trading at $35 a share at the end of 1993, raising Perelman’s stake to a value of $2.8 billion on an original cash investment of $10.5 million.

In 1994 Perelman used nearly $500 million in tax credits to buy California’s First Nationwide Bank, the nation’s fifth largest savings institution, in a deal valued at $1.1 billion.

1995-97:Through a complex series of maneuvers, this company becomes M & F Worldwide, a publicly traded company.

Still Buying and Selling: 1996--98

To protect his 14 percent investment in the troubled appliance manufacturer, whose stock value dropped 80 percent on news that it might have overstated its 1997 sales, he took over management of the company in June.

M & F Worldwide added a Chinese subsidiary and joint venture in 1998 with a factory in Xianyang.

Net sales came to $95.9 million in 1999, and net income to $19.1 million.

In November 2000 Perelman proposed that M & F Worldwide purchase Mafco Holdings' 83 percent stake in Panavision Inc.

Sunbeam owed creditors about $2.2 billion, including $500 million to one of Perelman’s holding companies. (Sunbeam Corporation filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001.

Everything remained quiet until May 2002 when Citigroup announced plans to buy Golden State for $5.8 billion, but ultimately reduced the offer to $4.9 billion due to a stock drop.

Toward the end of 2003, MacAndrews & Forbes invested in publicly traded Scientific Games Corporation.

Whiteman, Lou, and Vyvyan Tenorio, “Perelman Drives Hummer,” Daily Deal, August 11, 2004.

On February 17, 2005, Perelman filed a lawsuit against Morgan Stanley.

In January 2006, MacAndrews & Forbes closed a deal to acquire the Deluxe film processing and creative services business of The Rank Group plc for $750 million in another highly leveraged buyout.

In 2007 MacAndrews & Forbes was adding to its check printing empire by acquiring John H. Harland Company in a deal valued at $1.7 billion.

The IPO was being underwritten by Citigroup, but on December 12, 2008, a year after filing for an IPO, MAFS opted to withdraw their application for the "protection of investors".

By 2012, Revlon was rebounding, and its net income had grown to $51.5 million.