J. Peter Grace, president of W. R. Grace & Co. and Spyros P. Skouras and Spyros S. Skouras, chairman and president, respectively, of Admiralty Enterprises, Inc., have jointly announced that an agreement in principle has been reached for the sale of Grace Line, Inc. to Admiralty Enterprises. Of the $44.5-million purchase price, approximately $42-million will be paid in cash.
The agreement is subject to the execution of a formal contract and to the approval of the United States Maritime Administration and the board of directors of both companies.
Admiralty Enterprises owns Prudential Lines, Inc., a subsidized line founded in 1933. Mr. Skouras' son, Spyros S. Skouras, is president of Admiralty Enterprises and Prudential Lines, Inc. The Prudential Line operates five American-flag cargo ships in the Mediterranean service from New York. In addition to being chairman of both Admiralty Enterprises and Prudential Lines, the senior Mr. Skouras is also chairman of Twentieth-Century-Fox Film Corp.
Grace Line, Inc. operates six passenger-cargo ships and 18 freighters on regularly scheduled American-flag service on four trade routes between the United States and the Caribbean and Central and South America.
The decision to sell Grace Line, a wholly-owned subsidiary of W. R. Grace & Co., has been made in order to concentrate on the parent company's expansion in its growing industrial, specialty chemicals and consumer products operations.
In 1967, the total sales of W. R. Grace & Co. exceeded $1.5-billion. This included more than $900-million in chemical sales, $410-million in consumer products, and $100-million in Latin American manufacturing and commercial operations. Grace Line's 1967 revenues of $99-million were 6.3 percent of W. R. Grace & Co.'s total revenues.