When Sid Bass decided to invest in Blue Bell Creameries on Tuesday, the big question on everyone’s mind is whether he did so from his heart?
The billionaire from Fort Worth, who significantly multiplied his inheritance many years ago through investments in oil, gas and Disney, made a multimillion dollar investment in this company which hasn’t sold anything since April.
Even though it may appear as if Bass is showing state pride, investment experts strongly believe that he is being more opportunistic than anything else.
Mark Freeman, the CIO at Westwood Holdings in Dallas said that in his experience investors such as Bass or Warren Buffet always keep financial interests ahead of their emotions. Distressed situations may create opportunities but a keen investor like Bass wouldn’t just throw money at it because it’s one of Texas’ most iconic brands.
Paul Kruse, CEO of Blue Bell, said that this additional capital was going to help ensure their ice cream makes a successful return to the market & to their loyal customers. The company didn’t offer any information on how much of the company Bass now owns or if he likes the ice cream at all.
Bass is part of four brothers who had inherited their fortunes from their uncle, Sid Richardson the oil tycoon. He is currently listed as 1118 on the Forbes billionaire rankings with assets worth $ 1.7 billion. Prior to the recession he was listed within the top 400 with over $ 3 billion worth of assets.
Blue Bell had earlier closed all operations in order to investigate an outbreak of listeria and had recalled all their products on the 20th of April. They also laid off 1450 employees.
It was announced last week that the company was going to be having a trial run at their Alabama plant which was the first hint of a return.
They are going to remain under scrutiny for a while now with both state as well as federal agreements overseeing plant production prior to any ice cream being sold publicly again.
Blue Bell had an estimated revenue of $ 680 million in the previous year which was up sharply from the year before when their revenue was $ 620.7 million.
