Charter Company
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : CHR |
| Industry |
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| Fate |
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| Successor | Spelling Entertainment Group Inc. |
| Founded | Jacksonville, Florida, United States (1949) |
| Founder | Raymond Knight Mason |
| Defunct | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
The Charter Company of Jacksonville, Florida was a conglomerate with more than 180 subsidiaries that was in the Fortune 500 for 11 years beginning in 1974 and ranked 61st in 1984. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in late 1984, eventually selling off all of its businesses and purchasing Spelling Entertainment Inc. to form Spelling Entertainment Group Inc.
The Charter Company was started in Jacksonville, Florida in 1949 by Jacksonville native, Raymond Knight Mason, just graduated from college. The company's roots were from the Mason Lumber Company, founded in 1919.
Edward Ball, a powerful figure in Florida business and politics for decades, was Mason's friend and mentor. Ball worked for Alfred I. du Pont for nine years as a business associate before du Pont's death in 1935, then managed the trust's assets for another 46 years.
Charter started with a group of Florida mortgage, banking and land-developing firms. The company then bought 60 small gas stations in 1968.
In 1970, Charter purchased a petroleum operation for $70 million from the Signal Companies. Included in the deal was a small gasoline refinery in Houston, Texas in need of updating, a string of gas stations in the Southeast and a handful of questionable tanker contracts. Four years later, when the Arab Oil Embargo struck, Charter cashed in.
Also in 1970, congress repealed an exemption which allowed charitable trusts to control banks, forcing the du Pont Trust to divest itself of the Florida National Bank Group, which Charter purchased. Charter also owned 8.4% of the St. Joe Paper Company, one of the largest assets in the du Pont Trust, while St. Joe owned 22% of Charter. The two companies exchanged shares in 1972 with the intention of merging.
Senator Joseph Tydings was an investment partner in Charter since 1964 with $2 million in equity. At one time, Tydings was the largest Charter stockholder outside of the Mason family. A Life Magazine article in 1970 suggested that the senator used his influence to assist Charter in business deals, but no laws were broken.
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Wikipedia