Harold Simmons
Harold Clark Simmons (May 13, 1931 – December 29, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist whose banking expertise helped him develop the acquisition concept known as the leveraged buyout (LBO) to acquire various corporations. He was the owner of Contran Corporation and of Valhi, Inc., (a NYSE traded company about 90% controlled by Contran). As of 2006, he controll
Overview
Harold Clark Simmons (May 13, 1931 – December 29, 2013) was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist whose banking expertise helped him develop the acquisition concept known as the leveraged buyout (LBO) to acquire various corporations. He was the owner of Contran Corporation and of Valhi, Inc., (a NYSE traded company about 90% controlled by Contran). As of 2006, he controlled five public companies traded on the New York Stock Exchange: NL Industries; Titanium Metals Corporation, the world's largest producer of titanium; Valhi, Inc., a multinational company with operations in the chemicals, component products, Waste Control Specialists (waste management), titanium metals industries; CompX International, manufacturer of ergonomic products, and Kronos Worldwide, leading producer and marketer of titanium dioxide.
Early life and education
Simmons was born in Golden, Wood County, Texas, the son of Reuben Leon (1894–1954) and Fairess Clark Simmons (1903–1990). His parents were Baptists and both worked as teachers. His father later became a school superintendent. Simmons earned BA (1951) and MA (1952) degrees in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Simmons held a Phi Beta Kappa key.
Career
After completing graduate school in 1952, Simmons worked for the U.S. government as a bank examiner, then for a Dallas-based bank, Republic National Bank. In 1960, using $5,000 of his savings, and a $95,000 loan, he bought a small drugstore, University Pharmacy on Hillcrest Avenue, across from the campus of Southern Methodist University. Before Simmons owned it, University Pharmacy was the site of a racially charged sit-in in January 1961, when its owner C.K. Bright sprayed insecticide over and around 60 students, only two of whom were black seminary students. Simmons purchased the store and parlayed it into a chain of 100 stores, which in 1973 he sold for more than $50 million, to Eckerd Corporation. This launched his career as an investor when he used the proceeds of that sale to begin speculation in the financial services industry. By 1974, he had been indicted for and acquitted of wire and mail fraud, and involved in a pension-related lawsuit brought against him by the United Auto Workers. Simmons developed his "all debt and no equity" philosophy of capital management from having observed banks as a bank examiner, realizing that "Small banks in Texas were casual about getting the maximum use of their funds. . . banks were the most highly leveraged thing I saw. They borrowed most of their money and really didn't need much equity except for purposes of public confidence." Understanding that banks could be bought entirely with borrowed money, Simmons theorized that he should "buy a bunch, because one bank could be used to finance another. All debt and no equity." Simmons conducted a widely publicized but unsuccessful takeover attempt on the Lockheed Corporation, after having gradually acquired almost 20 per cent of its stock. Lockheed was attractive to Simmons because one of its primary investors was the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the pension fund of the state of California. At the time, the New York Times said, "Much of Mr. Simmons's interest in Lockheed is believed to stem from its pension plan, which is over financed by more than $1.4 billion. Analysts said he might want to liquidate the plan and pay out the excess funds to shareholders, including himself." Citing the "mismanagement" of its chairman, Daniel M. Tellep, Simmons stated a wish to replace its board with a slate of his own choosing, since he was the largest investor. His board nominations included former Texas Senator John Tower, the onetime chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr., a former Chief of Naval Operations. Simmons had first begun accumulating Lockheed stock in early 1989 when deep Pentagon cuts to the defense budget had driven down prices of military contractor stocks, and analysts had not believed he would attempt the takeover since he was also at the time pursuing control of Georgia Gulf. In 1997, Simmons made a $5 million investment in T. Boone Pickens, Jr.'s first fund BP Capital Energy Commodity Fund; by 2005 this had grown to $150 million.
Capital gains tax opposition and activism
In August 1997, President Bill Clinton used a line-item veto to draw attention to the type of "special benefits" that investors such as Simmons employ to avoid paying capital gains taxes since the early 1980s. Simmons had formed the "Snake River Sugar Cooperative" of 2,000 beet farmers and classified it as a joint-venture, shared ownership co-op, to purchase his Amalgamated Sugar Company, for $260 million. At the time, Charles Schumer, serving as a representative from New York, wrote a letter to Clinton stating that the measure before him for consideration would benefit Simmons with a $104 million tax deferral. Simmons stated at the time that his tax deferral was only $80 million.
1980s
During the Reagan presidency, Simmons was a contributor to GOPAC. Simmons also contributed to the defense funds of Oliver North and John Poindexter, Reagan aides implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal.
1990s
In 1993, Simmons was fined $19,000 by the Federal Election Commission for exceeding the legal limit of campaign contributions in 1989 and 1990 elections. Between 1993 and 1997, Simmons and family members and Contran gave more than $315,000 to Republican candidates, according to FEC records.
2004 presidential election
During the 2004 presidential campaign Simmons made a $4 million donation to the group Swift Vets and POWs for Truth. He also donated $100,000 to George W. Bush's January 2005 inaugural ball.
2008 presidential election
Simmons, a longtime Republican donor, gave the maximum $2,300 contributions to Senator John McCain, as well as to fellow Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. He was listed as a "bundler" for the McCain campaign on McCain's website, which meant that he had raised between $50,000 and $100,000 for the Republican candidate. He also contributed to Representative Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat. Simmons has given more than $500,000 to Texas Governor Rick Perry, and more than $300,000 to Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott. He was a major donor to the American Issues Project, an independent conservative political group that ran ads critical of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
2010 midterm elections
Two of Harold Simmons' companies – Southwest Louisiana Land which he owns and Dixie Rice Agricultural Corp in which he was a major investor – were each $1 million donors to the American Crossroads, a 527 organization working to elect primarily Republican legislators during the 2010 midterm elections.
2011 illegal campaign contributions
In 2012, Simmons was fined by the Texas Ethics Commission for illegal campaign contributions to Texas state legislators in 2011. Simmons had channeled his contributions (to fifteen Republicans and three Democrats) through a political action committee (PAC), but he was the PAC's sole donor. The fine, in the amount of $6,450, was criticized as "meager" by Texans for Public Justice, the nonprofit organization that filed the complaint.
2012 presidential election
Simmons's company, Contran Corporation, donated $1 million to Make Us Great Again, a super PAC supporting Rick Perry's 2012 presidential candidacy. That donation was the single largest received by the PAC in the fourth quarter of 2011. According to a CBS article, Contran also was the largest donor to American Crossroads, giving $2 million to the conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove. Later data from Opensecrets.org shows Contran contributions of $5 million in Nov 2011, $5 million in Jan 2012, and $1 million in April 2012 to American Crossroads. Simmons also donated $100,000 directly to another Perry super PAC, the Restoring Prosperity Fund, before donating $5 million to American Crossroads in addition to Contran's donation. He has also contributed to Restore our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. His contributions in support of Romney totaled $16.5 million, making him the year's third-largest Republican donor, behind Sheldon Adelson and Bob J. Perry. As of March, Simmons and Contran Corp. had given almost $18 million to conservative super PACs, the election's second single contributor after Sheldon Adelson, spread among all the major Republican candidates following the advice of Rove. Simmons said, "Any of these Republicans would make a better president than that socialist, Obama. Obama is the most dangerous American alive ... because he would eliminate free enterprise in this country."
Environmental management
NL Industries, originally named National Lead Industries, Inc. has been involved in numerous lawsuits brought by the U.S. Department of Justice to force the company to pay funds into the Superfund to clean up contaminated sites at various sites around the country such as Granite City, Illinois, and Depew, New York.
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