Robertson, whose evangelical empire includes the Christian Broadcasting Network, ““The 700 Club’’ TV show and an international relief group called Operation Blessing, knows his way around the world of big business. In the late 1980s, the Family Channel cable-TV network was spun off from his ministry, and Robertson took it public in 1992; Rupert Murdoch bought the company two years ago for an estimated $1.9 billion. The sale brought something on the order of $109 million in cash to a charitable trust controlled by Robertson that eventually will revert to his TV ministry, according to Norfolk’s Virginian-Pilot. But Robertson, who declined to answer NEWSWEEK’s questions, has authority to invest the money in the interim, says the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a watchdog group to which Robertson’s organization belongs.
In the last year, Robertson has been making investments outside the media business in which he was so clearly successful. Last May he started acquiring shares in Laura Ashley, and ultimately amassed 2 million shares–about .5 per-cent of Laura Ashley’s total stock–then worth about $1 million. Robertson was named to the board at the urging of Kay Peng Khoo, a Malaysian businessman whose conglomerate, Malayan United Industries, became the company’s dominant shareholder last year. (Laura Ashley says Robertson and Khoo have known each other for years, and Khoo is a trustee of Regent University, a Christian college founded by Robertson.)
What does the evangelist bring to the froufrou frock trade? Stephen Cox, Laura Ashley’s general counsel, says Robertson ““has great business acumen and will be a great asset to the board.’’ The company says it’s getting back on track, with new, more contemporary styles, a capital infusion from Malayan United and a plan to revamp its lineup of U.S. stores. But the stock is still languishing, and analysts are dismayed by the company’s repeated management upheavals, which last month included the departure of the latest CEO after just six months. ““They’re in dire straits,’’ says Patrick McCarthy, chairman of Women’s Wear Daily. ““Maybe they’re looking for divine intervention.''
Laura Ashley isn’t the only recent Robertson investment that required a leap of faith. Last August, through a company called CENCO Refining controlled by his charitable trust, he bought an idle oil refinery near Los Angeles. The refinery, which made gasoline and diesel fuel, shut down in 1995 amid financial woes and environmental complaints. At one point, its owners considered dismantling the facility and shipping the equipment to India. But CENCO Refining president J. Nelson Happy, a lawyer and former oil executive who also serves as dean of the law school at Robertson’s Regent University, says prospects for the refinery are now bright: the California gasoline market is tight, he says, and profit margins for refiners in the state today are ““quite good.’’ In January the agency that enforces clean-air laws in southern California approved a tentative plan under which CENCO will refit the refinery with modern production and antipollution equipment and resume production late this year.
There is one hitch: the improvements will cost more than $100 million. To help pay for them, CENCO is now working with the investment bank Warburg Dillon Read on a junk-bond offering. If the offering flies, the millennium–a major focus of Robertson’s preachings–should reveal whether his ministrations will help resurrect these two troubled businesses.
BEYOND MEDIA Robertson has been branching out from religious broadcasting:
1992: Takes Family Channel cable-television network public
1997: Sells network to Rupert Murdock for an estimated $1.9 billion
May 1998: Begins buying 2 million shares of Laura Ashley
Aug. 1998: Through his charitable trust, buys an idle California oil refinery
