UV Industries, Inc.

Product Details Company UV Industries, Inc. Certificate Type Common Stock Date Issued 1970's Canceled Yes Printer Security-Columbian/United States Bank Note Company Signatures Machine printed Approximate Size 12" (w) x 8" (h) Images Representative of the piece you will receive Guaranteed Authentic Yes Additional Details NA Historical Context Between 1908 and 1972, UV Industries, Inc. was known as the United States Smelting, Refining, & Mining Company. The company changed its name to UV Industries, Inc. to better reflect the diversified nature of the company and to signal that mining was no longer their core business. As early as September 1976, Victor Posner's Sharon Steel Company held as much as 20 percent of UV Industries stock. Posner held the same percentage by early December 1977 when he began his hostile takeover by buying shares of UV Industries, following his pattern of buying interest in companies that were undervalued in relation to their stock price. By late 1978, he had accumulated 22 percent, and continued his attempt at control of the company. UV Industries announced that it had been approached by "several concerns with a view to a possible combination." UV Industries announced that the company would sell its most profitable subsidiary, Federal Pacific Electric Company, which during 1978, had accounted for 60 percent of UV's revenues and 81 percent of its profits. During the same time, UV's "metal mining" activities, which included United States Fuel and Utah Railway, along with its Mueller Brass subsidiary, accounted for 13 percent of profits and 38 percent of revenue. This action was to make UV Industries less attractive to Posner's hostile takeover. On January 19, 1979, UV Industries announced that it would liquidate all of its assets, again to stop Posner's hostile takeover. Two months later, the company sold its Federal Electric subsidiary to Reliance Electric for $345 million in cash. A month earlier, UV had announced to its shareholders its intended action to sell its subsidiaries and liquidate its assets. On March 26, 1979, the shareholders approved the intended actions. On October 2, 1979, UV sold its oil and gas properties to Tenneco Oil Company for $135 million in cash. In November of 1979, the company sold the United States Fuel mine at Hiawatha, and the Utah Railway, along with other assets, to Sharon Steel Company. UV Industries had been holding talks earlier with Reliance Group, but those talks broke down. A group of railroad employees had hoped to be able to buy the railroad. The announced sale brought those hopes to an end. Sharon Steel purchased the remaining assets of UV Industries that same month and the dismantling was complete. Related Collections