How business, doctors and journalists prey on your food anxieties I

Nearly bankrupt ten years ago, Union Texas Petroleum
is now flush with profits <strong>and</strong> on the trail
of 1 billion barrels of oil .
Elephant hunter
By Toni Mack
ON JULY 1, 1984 Clark Johnson was
named chief esecud ve of Union Texas
Petroleum Holdings . He didn't
celebrate for long . Three days later
Johnson «'as told that his parent company,
the old Allied Corp„ wanted to
start cashing out of Union Texas .
Unless Johnson could find someone
to buy half of Union Texas, Allied
would sell the whole company, <strong>and</strong>
Johnson would be out of a job .
Thus began eight tumultuous e'ears
during which Johnson fought to save
not only his job bu t Union Texas, too .
In July 1985 he convinced Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co . to pay Allied
S250 million for 50% ofli nion Texas .
KKR, of course, financed the deal bq
borrowing heavily against
the oil outfit's assets <strong>and</strong> i
cash flow . But within a year 3
the price ofoil crashed from ~
527 to $11 a barrel, <strong>and</strong>
Union Texas' cash flow was
barelv adequate to sen'ice
its debts .
Johnson kept Union
Texas afloat bv slashing
spending <strong>and</strong> selling assets .
Debt was further reduced
in September 1987, when
Allied (which bv then had
merged with Signal Cos . to
form AlliedSignal Inc .) <strong>and</strong>
'~lcti each sold a 12% stake in
Union Texas to public
investors .
Unfortunatelv, Union
Texas' two controlling
shareholders argued over
what to do with Union
Texas . "AlliedSignal wanted
to get its cash out,
whereas ?