Wilbur Ross
Encyclopedia
Wilbur L. Ross, Jr. is an American
investor
known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel
, coal
, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles. He specializes in leveraged buyout
s and distressed businesses. In 2011, Forbes
magazine listed Ross as one of the world's billionaires with a net worth of $1.9 billion. According to a recent New York Times
article, he has been bottom-fishing in mortgages and mortgage companies. He apparently commands far greater sums than his net worth would suggest.
Ross was born in Weehawken, New Jersey
and grew up well off in suburban New Jersey. His father was a lawyer and his mother a schoolteacher. He serves on the board of advisors of Yale School of Management
. His second wife was former New York Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross
, whom he divorced in 2000.
, which was also his father's alma mater. At Yale, Ross edited one of the literary magazines and worked at the radio station. Initially, he wanted to be a writer, but after his experience in a fiction class requiring 500 words daily, he concluded that he had "run out of material." His faculty adviser at Yale helped him get his first summer job on Wall Street. Ross earned his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School
.
Ross sold the Richfield, Ohio-based International Steel Group
to Mittal Steel Company
for $4.5 billion April 2005. As of 10 months later, Ross had not sold any of his Mittal shares.
and Cone Mills in 2004 to form International Textile Group
. ITG operates five businesses, all of which operate under separate brand names: Cone Denim, Burlington Apparel Fabrics, Home Furnishings, Carlisle Finishing and Nano-Tex. The company entered into a five-year, $150 million credit facility led by Bank of America
. Other lenders in the bank group included GE Capital
and CIT Group. Corporate offices are located in Greensboro in the previous Cone Mills headquarters building and in an adjacent office complex.
In early 2007, Lear completed the transfer of substantially all of its former North American Interior Systems Division to International Automotive Components Group North America. The deal involved 26 manufacturing plants and two Chinese joint ventures. Lear also contributed $27 million in cash for a 25% interest in IAC North America and warrants for an additional 7%.
Wilbur L. Ross, Chairman of IAC said, "We are delighted to make IAC's first acquisition within a month of announcing the joint venture company. We also are appreciative that the automobile industry has decided to support our efforts. This is the start of a major global factor in the automotive interior plastics industry."
The Joint Venture has also bought the subsidiary of C&A in Brazil.
Reportedly, Ross is also considering the profit
potential of Delphi
.
, which has now gone public. His relationship with the UMWA has not been friendly; they have bitterly protested the bankruptcy regulations that had allowed him to set up the International Coal Group free of labor unions, health care
and pensions.
, the New York Post
's Roddy Boyd reported that Ross "had been intimately involved with the company that owned the West Virginia
mine
where 12 miners perished — and he knew all about its safety problems, former executives charged." The article also reported that the mine had 12 roof collapses in 2005, and that the U.S. Department of Labor data showed 208 citation
s for safety violations in that same period, including 21 times for build-up of toxic gasses. Despite these figures, Ross refused to shut down the mine. The Department of Labor and the State of West Virginia, as well as Congress are currently investigating the disaster.
President
Bill Clinton
on the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, and later, under New York City
Mayor
Rudy Giuliani
as the Mayor's privatization
advisor.
January 1998 he put $2.25 million in seed money into McCaughey Ross's campaign.
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
known for restructuring failed companies in industries such as steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, telecommunications, foreign investment and textiles. He specializes in leveraged buyout
Leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout occurs when an investor, typically financial sponsor, acquires a controlling interest in a company's equity and where a significant percentage of the purchase price is financed through leverage...
s and distressed businesses. In 2011, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine listed Ross as one of the world's billionaires with a net worth of $1.9 billion. According to a recent New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
article, he has been bottom-fishing in mortgages and mortgage companies. He apparently commands far greater sums than his net worth would suggest.
Ross was born in Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken, New Jersey
Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...
and grew up well off in suburban New Jersey. His father was a lawyer and his mother a schoolteacher. He serves on the board of advisors of Yale School of Management
Yale School of Management
The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The School offers Master of Business Administration and Ph.D. degree programs. As of January 2011, 454 students were enrolled in its MBA...
. His second wife was former New York Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross
Betsy McCaughey Ross
Betsy McCaughey , formerly known as Betsy McCaughey Ross, was the Republican Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1995 to 1998, during the first term of Governor George Pataki. She unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for Governor after Pataki dropped her from his 1998 ticket.An...
, whom he divorced in 2000.
Education
Ross drove two hours a day from New Jersey to attend the elite Catholic Xavier High School in Manhattan. He ran track and was captain of the rifle team. He earned a B.A. from Yale CollegeYale College
Yale College was the official name of Yale University from 1718 to 1887. The name now refers to the undergraduate part of the university. Each undergraduate student is assigned to one of 12 residential colleges.-Residential colleges:...
, which was also his father's alma mater. At Yale, Ross edited one of the literary magazines and worked at the radio station. Initially, he wanted to be a writer, but after his experience in a fiction class requiring 500 words daily, he concluded that he had "run out of material." His faculty adviser at Yale helped him get his first summer job on Wall Street. Ross earned his M.B.A. at Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
.
Rothschild Investments
"Starting in the mid-'70s, Ross built his reputation as the country's foremost bankruptcy adviser. Ross saw himself as cleaning up the messy results of Michael Milken's junk-bond financings, but by 1997 he wanted to do more than just cajole others into doing it his way. For three years he ran a private-equity fund within Rothschild. But Ross couldn't invest in deals on which the firm was advising, shutting him out of one in three bankruptcies."WL Ross & Co.
In 2000, Ross bought out his equity fund and opened WL Ross & Co. in New York with $440 million in investor money and a staff that included four top managers who, along with Ross, make up the firm's investment committee: David H. Storper, who runs trading; David L. Wax, a longtime workout specialist; Stephen J. Toy, an Asia expert; and Pamela K. Wilson, a J.P. Morgan & Co. veteran. Companies in this group include American Home Mortgage Servicing, which seems to be attempting to return to profitability by modifying the loans of delinquent homeowners. The company recently added servicing of 185,000 loans from Citibank.International Steel Group
Wilbur Ross at first had support of the local Steelworkers Union, negotiating a deal with them to "save" Pennsylvania's steel industry.Ross sold the Richfield, Ohio-based International Steel Group
International Steel Group
International Steel Group was a steel company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2004 it was ranked #426 on the Fortune 500. It was created after the turn around fund, WL Ross & Co. LLC, purchased LTV Steel in February 2002...
to Mittal Steel Company
Mittal Steel Company
Mittal Steel Company N.V. was one of the world's largest steel producers by volume, and also one of the largests in turnover. The company is now part of ArcelorMittal....
for $4.5 billion April 2005. As of 10 months later, Ross had not sold any of his Mittal shares.
International Textile Group (ITG)
Ross combined Burlington IndustriesBurlington Industries
Burlington Industries is a diversified U. S. fabric maker based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Founded in 1923, the company has operations in the United States, Mexico, and India and a global manufacturing and product development network based in Hong Kong. The company entered Chapter 11...
and Cone Mills in 2004 to form International Textile Group
International Textile Group
International Textile Group is a diversified U.S. fabric maker based in Greensboro, North Carolina. It acquired the assets of the former Burlington Industries out of bankruptcy in late 2003, and the assets of the former Cone Mills Corporation in 2004...
. ITG operates five businesses, all of which operate under separate brand names: Cone Denim, Burlington Apparel Fabrics, Home Furnishings, Carlisle Finishing and Nano-Tex. The company entered into a five-year, $150 million credit facility led by Bank of America
Bank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
. Other lenders in the bank group included GE Capital
GE Capital
GE Capital is the financial services unit of General Electric, one of five major units. Its various divisions include GE Capital Aviation Services, GE Capital Real Estate, GE Energy Financial Services and GE Money....
and CIT Group. Corporate offices are located in Greensboro in the previous Cone Mills headquarters building and in an adjacent office complex.
Lear
Wilbur L. Ross, Chairman of International Automotive Components Group ("IAC"), announced on Oct 16, 2006 the completion of the previously announced acquisition of Lear Corporation's European Interiors Systems Division on a debt-free basis in exchange for 34% of the stock in IAC. The transaction will expand IAC's presence in Europe to 20 facilities in 9 countries with approximately $1.2 billion in annual revenues.In early 2007, Lear completed the transfer of substantially all of its former North American Interior Systems Division to International Automotive Components Group North America. The deal involved 26 manufacturing plants and two Chinese joint ventures. Lear also contributed $27 million in cash for a 25% interest in IAC North America and warrants for an additional 7%.
Collins & Aikman Europe
On November 28, 2005 the joint venture by Ross, Franklin Mutual Advisers, and Lear Corporation, announced an agreement to acquire from Collins & Aikman Europe ("C&A") its $600 million operations in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom serving Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Porsche, Saab, Volkswagen, Volvo and other original equipment manufacturers. The exchange is subject to approval of the local insolvency authority and the Austrian Court.Wilbur L. Ross, Chairman of IAC said, "We are delighted to make IAC's first acquisition within a month of announcing the joint venture company. We also are appreciative that the automobile industry has decided to support our efforts. This is the start of a major global factor in the automotive interior plastics industry."
The Joint Venture has also bought the subsidiary of C&A in Brazil.
Reportedly, Ross is also considering the profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
potential of Delphi
Delphi
Delphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
.
Safety Components International
On December 2, 2005, Zapata Corp. Chairman, Avie Glazer, announced the sale of 4,162,394 shares, 77.3%, of Safety Components International to Ross for $51.2 million. Safety Components, an independent manufacturer of air bag fabrics and cushions, is headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina and has plants located in North America, Europe, China and South Africa.Oxford Automotive
Ross owns 25% of Oxford Automotive, a French company, which is in talks to be taken over by Britain's Wagon.International Coal Group
Ross founded the International Coal GroupInternational Coal Group
International Coal Group, Inc. is a mining company in the United States that produces coal from 12 mining complexes in Northern and Central Appalachia and from one complex in the Illinois Basin....
, which has now gone public. His relationship with the UMWA has not been friendly; they have bitterly protested the bankruptcy regulations that had allowed him to set up the International Coal Group free of labor unions, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
and pensions.
Sago Mine disaster
Following the Sago Mine disasterSago Mine disaster
The Sago Mine disaster was a coal mine explosion on January 2, 2006, in the Sago Mine in Sago, in Upshur County, West Virginia, USA, near the county seat of Buckhannon. The blast and collapse trapped 13 miners for nearly two days; one miner survived...
, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
's Roddy Boyd reported that Ross "had been intimately involved with the company that owned the West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...
mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
where 12 miners perished — and he knew all about its safety problems, former executives charged." The article also reported that the mine had 12 roof collapses in 2005, and that the U.S. Department of Labor data showed 208 citation
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
s for safety violations in that same period, including 21 times for build-up of toxic gasses. Despite these figures, Ross refused to shut down the mine. The Department of Labor and the State of West Virginia, as well as Congress are currently investigating the disaster.
Political activities
Ross has served under U.S.United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
on the board of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund, and later, under New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from New York. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001....
as the Mayor's privatization
Privatization
Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...
advisor.
January 1998 he put $2.25 million in seed money into McCaughey Ross's campaign.
Organizational Memberships
Ross is a member and past director of the Turnaround Management Association and the American Bankruptcy Institute and a member of the Committee on Capital Markets RegulationCommittee on Capital Markets Regulation
The Committee on Capital Markets Regulation is an independent and nonpartisan 501 research organization dedicated to improving the regulation of U.S. capital markets.-Background:...
.
External links
- Morning Edition (NPR) article - "Wilbur Ross: Finding His Calling" - September 15, 2008
- Profile at the Yale School of Management