Koch Industries "New Koch" Fortune Profile

                                                        Source: Fortune Magazine

Recently, Fortune did a pretty decent profile of Koch Industries (however they didn't directly talk to Charles or David Koch). The article appeared in the December 14, 2013 issues of Fortune (I linked to the article however there is a paywall).

The article really shreds the notion that Koch Industries is just an oil company. In the past 10 years Koch has invested more than $50 billion buying companies and reinvesting earnings back into the company (Koch typically reinvests 90% of their earnings back into the company-which has led to their significant growth in such a short period of time).  Currently, the company spends about $100 million per year to fund research for its development groups . Koch really is a diversified company in so many different industries it is really hard to put a label on it (I would argue Koch is more like Berkshire Hathaway than Chevron). The company recently invested $240 million into American Greetings (a card company).

The company just recently spent $7.2 billion on Molex Industries (which makes electronic components-even for iPhones). In addition to this Koch also invested $1.1 billion (Big River Steel) into a steel mill. Molex has about 35,000 people that will probably get integrated into the Koch culture. The company literally sells 100,000 different products. Steve Feilmeier chief financial officer of Koch Industries said in this article that Koch is "going to direct all of the earnings of this company back into the company so they can reinvest in new products" and adds that Koch Industries takes a long-term view on things.

According to the Fortune article Koch operates more like a large private equity fund. The company starts off small investing having a minority stake and then gradually increase their ownership and sometimes buyout companies or subsidies of other companies if they feel the entity will contribute to the long-term growth of Koch. Fortune spent months interviewing people and looking through company financials. Even Fortune commented that Koch was a "highly disciplined organization". You can't run a billion dollar company disorganized. The company does look at the long-term (since the company is private it doesn't have to satisfy shareholder's or analysts on Wall-Street). Even I was surprised to learn that Koch will not invest in something unless it doesn't already know something about that business. Many times companies just purchase other entities that they believe will have a high return yet find out later they know little about the business they bought and don't see the pitfalls until after the fact. Charles Koch himself said here that if he ran a public company he would probably be fired.  It is important to note that Koch 50 years ago only had revenue of $200 million in revenue which is now $115 billion in 2013. In the article it is mentioned that when presenting to Charles Koch you essentially better be prepared to get asked difficult questions. A vice president for Koch's internal venture capital fund was grilled by Koch in a meeting when making a proposal and Charles "is known to pierce weak arguments with a single question". 

Working at Koch Industries probably is no picnic. According to some Glassdoor reviews of employees who have worked at Koch often they say there is no work-life balance (meaning they work all the time) which isn't a bad thing if people are increasing their standard of living and making the world a better place. Working for Charles Koch is no picnic either. According to a former employee at Koch the review process is intense. Charles Koch has been known to ask tough questions, can see quickly if numbers are fudged, and if assumptions made in an analysis are incorrect. You really can't get wealth by letting people slipping nonsense through you. The pattern at Koch Industries in terms of analyzing a deal is they will only engage in deals where a business is in trouble. They are more likely to invest in a business if the business is in decline and Koch believes the company can be turned around and brought back. The company is very long term oriented and has a 10-20 year time horizon on deals which I would argue many companies would never consider. When Koch investigates a deal they will run all types of hypothetical analysis to see if their investment would make sense under different scenarios (economy gets worse, interest rates increase, etc). Koch for instance purchased assets from Farmland fertilizer company even though it wasn't really in that business but because the economics were good and they were able to buy assets for pennies on the dollar. 

The company continues to embrace Market Based Management (MBM) which seems to have worked out pretty well for them considering their enormous growth. The principles of MBM are even printed on Starbucks coffee cups inside the break room. It is good for a company to truly embrace their principles instead of just having it as window dressing.

The article gave the impression that David Koch is just a figurehead at Koch Industries, however, as I blogged about here David Koch while in his 70's still works from 9 A.M.-7 P.M. This article way back from 1980 explains how he would sometimes spend the weekend at the office studying pollution control designs. Charles Koch responded to the article with a letter that explained how his brother grew Koch Chemical Technology by leaps and bounds.

There is no question Koch Industries will often criticized for their politics, trying to pollute the world, or Koch fund something (Koch-funded means a dollar from anything related in any way, shape, or from Koch Industries, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, or an entity that may be loosely tied to Koch Industries (doesn't have to be direct received more than $1 in funding). Koch Industries is truly a modern industry that makes products that every day people use (paper towels, cups, carpet, even clean drinking water). By providing services and products that millions of people buy Charles and David Koch are doing a community service. 

Case Against Estate Tax

For years people have talked about trying to repeal the estate (death tax). By the time someone dies the money that is subject to estate taxed has been taxed multiple times. The money is first taxed when it is earned (federal, state, and sometimes even city tax). If that money is invested and if someone sells their investment they are taxed again (at a rate of either capital gains or ordinary income). Once they sell the investment if that same money is used to purchase something you have to pay sales tax. Then when the person dies they are taxed after already being taxed multiple times.  The estate tax started in 1916 and the exemption was $50,000 which would be around $1 million adjusted for inflation today. The exemption these days is over $5 million per person. Let's not forget if you give over $14,000 a year to someone you are not only required to let the government know (Form 709) but you also may have to pay tax on that. However, the estate tax by itself raised very little revenue. In fact the estate tax raises less than ½ of 1% of all revenue. The United States also has the third highest marginal estate tax rate in the world. People with lots of money can easily find ways to get around the estate tax by either giving it away, setting up certain types of trusts, or spending it. What is really interesting is people like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who are both in favor of higher taxes are giving all their money away to charity (I guess they really trust how the government would spend their money).

You hear statistics like the estate tax only affects 2 in 1,000 estates. The problem can mislead someone into thinking only 2 in 1,000 estates have over $5 million. The major problem with this is that many people with over $5 million are figuring out ways to not have to pay estate taxes. People can set up various types of trusts, give the money to charity during their lifetime, or spend it which would not subject them to the estate tax. The rich didn't rich by being stupid as Dr. Walter E. Williams would say.

Basically if have any right or control over property it will end up in your estate. The estate tax makes zero economic sense because it inducing not to invest and accumulate wealth since it will be taxed. This is why so many wealthy people give assets and money to either family members, charity, or their children. Let's not forget the wealthy people who do set hire accountants, financial planners, and lawyers have an implicit tax of hiring t However,  if you give over a certain amount to family members then you have to pay gift taxes and if you give money away to someone too young you might have generation skipping taxes (see how the taxes start adding up quickly).

Other popular arguments you hear are that the estate tax is used to break up the concentration of power. This too is nonsense considering usually the kids of the people who worked hard to earn the money generally don’t have the same work ethic or values as the people who actually earned the money. Most often times the wealth lasts for three generations. In actuality not having an estate tax or gift tax would actually break up the concentration of wealth because if people could free give their money to whoever they wanted, money would move to many more and different people. 

David Koch Not A Republican: On Syria, Same Sex Marriage, Taxes, and Middle East

In a recent story David Kock talked to Yahoo News here and said that he didn't believe we should get involved with Syria. Many journalists tie to David Koch to the Republican party however staying out of harms way is not a Republican viewpoint. Koch goes on to say that the United States going into Syria would be like "putting your head in a hornet's nest".

What is interesting is David Koch is actually in favor of same sex marriage, (David Koch use to have three dates a day according to this article) withdrawing from the Middle East, and even said he may consider favoring tax increases here.

It is interesting that people claim David Koch is a Republican yet he has liberal social views and even stated he may consider raising taxes to help the deficit. David Koch truly remains interesting person (no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on).

Estate Planning Koch and Chase Koch (Son of Charles Koch): Past, Present, and Future

Update: I recently wrote a profile on Elizabeth Koch about her views on money, sex, and relationships which can be found here and the implications of Koch Industries stock in the future.

Fred Koch came back from an African Safari and was "furious" according to son Charles Koch about wanting to purchase two trucker companies according to this Wichita Eagle article. Fred Koch was trying save money for estate taxes and only told Charles to buy one trucking company. However, Charles Koch was in growth mode trying to grow Koch Industries bought both.

Fred Koch set up some very useful estate planning for his sons. He wanted his sons to inherit the stock at a low tax rate so they wouldn't have to force them to sell the company to pay estate taxes. Between 1966 and 1967 Fred Koch set up trusts for each of his sons according to this document. Fred Koch would pass away in 1967 as he was on a hunting trip. Fred did give son Fredrick a lesser share than the rest of the Koch brothers (it is believed Fredrick stole some petty cash). A large part of Koch Industries was owned by the four trusts created. The trusts had each Koch brother as co-trustee of their own trusts in addition to the First National Bank of Wichita. The income generated from the trusts would be paid to charity over a 20 year period and at the ended in 1986. David Koch said in this profile "So for 20 years, I had to give away all that income...and I sort of got into it". This got David Koch into the habit of donating to charity in general. Charles and Elizabeth Koch have also been charitable as well. Between the late 1980's and early 1990's they donated an average of $2 million each year just to Kansas area charities according to this 1994 Wichita Eagle article. Charles Koch has said that the only way the company would go public is if shares were literally offered over his dead body according to this article.

Charles and Liz Koch had two children. Elizabeth graduated from Princeton University with a degree in English literature in 1999 and then went to Syracuse for a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 2011. She is now 37 and lives in New York and is in the publishing business. Chase Koch graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. These days Chase is now 36 and started out in business development and also worked as a vice president of international business for Koch Fertilizer Company. These days he is vice president of Agronomics Services for Koch Industries.

Growing up every Sunday Chase and his sister Elizabeth would have to spend an hour learning about economics from their father Charles Koch. Chase was actually an outstanding tennis player in high school and was even profiled in Sports Illustrated under "Faces In The Crowd" which points out outstanding athletes in the country here. Chase Koch was actually probably one of the best tennis players in the country. Chase went to high school at Wichita Collegiate School in Kansas. Chase also had a great tennis coach as well. Coach Dave Hawkley of Wichita Collegiate School was also excellent helping win 92 state championships in tennis. Chase Koch shared his memories of his coach here. The Charles G. Koch Foundation greatly supported the Wichita Collegiate School between 1986-1997 giving more than $3.3 million.

Chase Koch as a teenager was put to work according to this article. When Chase was only 13 he was did manual labor at a cattle feedlot in western Kansas. Chase in fact lived on the couch with the feedlot manager and was working over 80 hours a week (7 days per week) at a young age. This is no different than Charles, David or Bill Koch who have all talked about doing at a young age. David in his Newsmax profile discussed how he worked on the ranch driving bulldozers, operating hay bailers, in addition to fixing farm equipment and digging ditches as I mentioned in this article.

On November 1, 2010 Chase Koch married Annie Breitenbach (here is her high school picture). Annie graduated from the University of Kansas and now works as an RN in Wichita, Kansas. In 2010, the newly weds purchased 70 acres of land and a house for $3 million in Wichita, Kansas according to this article. They now have a son named Charles Gerard Koch who was baptized in June 2012.

Chase Koch like his parents is also charitably inclined. In 2010, Women's Focus had this story discussing how Koch Industries was getting involved with the Kansas Food Bank (Chase helped out the food bank as a representative of Koch Fertilizer. Koch Industries gave the Kansas Food bank 230,000 pounds of food. I guess Koch Industries does actually want to make sure less fortunate people go hungry.

According to this December 2012 Forbes article Charles Koch claims he has been doing estate planning for "many many years". In addition to this, he says that Koch Industries now has more depth in their leadership than ever before. My bet would be that David Robertson would first take over the company if something ever were to happen to Charles Koch and then possibly Chase could take it over down the road. It should be noted that Charles Koch took over Koch Industries when he was only 31. A fun fact is Charles earned two masters degrees in engineering before he was 24 according to this article.

Charles Koch is a interesting, smart, and a controversial person. He has grown a company from $225 million in revenues to $115 billion. Many people like to bring up the fact that he inherited Koch Industries. However, what they don't realize is that Charles and David put in long hours and worked nearly every day of the week to grow it. There were only one of three outcomes: the company could have gone bankrupt, stayed the same, or grown. The future of Koch Industries should be interesting. Charles Koch said in this article that he wants to work on deals that "move the needle". Charles and David Koch are each worth around $34 billion. This could mean that in the next decade they could easily be worth over $100 billion each. The question will be in the future what will happen to Koch Industries in the future?

U.S. Post Office, Unions, and Realtor Interest Groups Give More To Politicians Than Koch Industries

What is quite amazing is when I hear that the Koch brothers and Koch brothers are influencing politics. The Koch brothers could spend $100 billion on political races however at the end of the day people will vote their own way. Votes can't be "bought".

When examining the actual data from 1989-2012 from opensecrets.org it seems as if Koch Industries is no where near the top in terms of political contributions. Anyone who watched MSNBC, read the New York Times, or listened to Ed Shultz on the radio would think otherwise. In fact Koch Industries only gave $17 million in a 23 year period. This Palm Beach Post article talks about how David Koch gives more to charity than to politics on a scale of 4-1.

I don't even hear Fox News covering the fact that unions are donating large amounts of money to politicians. Democrats and Republicans are in the same business they just have different friends.

U.S. Post Office $174 Billion Lost Since 1800

The United States Post Office (USPS) is one my favorite agencies to talk about. In an analysis I did I examined how much the USPS actually lost since 1800. I was able to get a hold of this USPS data which shows the annual expenses and revenues since 1800. When you add up the losses (not adjusted for inflation) they amount to $33 billion. I used the WestEgg inflation calculator and figured out a factor to use for every year to figure out what the yearly loss or gain would be in 2012 dollars. When you inflation adjust the cumulative amount since 1800 it comes out to be $174 billion. This figure is really understated because the U.S. Post Office doesn’t pay taxes if it buys trucks, tires, or other equipment.

In my analysis it was interesting to find that the number of post offices actually peaked in 1901 at (76,945). These days (2012) there are around 26,755 post offices. The peak year for the pieces of mail was greatest in 2006 with 213 billion pieces. What is interesting is that throughout the 1990’s the amount of mail increased even as the internet was coming around. However it wasn’t until 2002 until the number of mail pieces actually decreased. The pieces of mail will only continue to decline in the future as more people use e-mail, texting, and cell phones which are all forms of communications that are in competition with snail mail. 

If any rational person heard a government organization had lost $174 billion since being created what would they do? Most rational people would say can we improve it an economist or business person would say can we eliminate it. Meanwhile in the private sector FedEx in the past 3 years has earned over $4.6 billion in profits. UPS in this same time period has made over $9 billion.  Most rational people would ask if we really need the service. In the case of the post office it is a no brainer given we have companies like UPS, FedEx, DHL, and many more logistics companies. What is even more bizarre is that if mail was privatized it would actually increase government revenue since the added profits private companies would be making would be taxed. Also the 546,000 employees that currently work at the U.S. Post Office could apply for jobs in these private logistic companies. Private companies would hold these employees to a higher standard. For instance back in 2011 we all remember the U.S. post office employee who was caught defecating in a yard who then was placed on administrative leave (this employee would be fired immediately in the private sector).

Why not let the private sector take over an area the government can't seem to handle?

Charles Koch Institute $200,000 For Economic Freedom Ad and ThinkProgress Fails Econ 101

As you may know I am interested in covering Charles Koch and Koch Industries. I did a historical net worth of the Koch brothers from 1984-2013 here. If you would like to read all my Koch entries go here. So in this recent Wichita Eagle interview (as of right now in writing this post the Koch interview is number one on the most read stories for the Wichita Eagle). Charles Koch talks about how he wants to spread the ideas of freedom and liberty to everyone (even the poor people).  The Charles Koch Foundation will spend $200,000 on media ads to promote education on economic freedom. If there is ever a time in history to explain to people free markets and economic freedom now is the time. Koch says that “we want to do a better job of raising up the disadvantaged and the poorest in our country, rather than saying ‘Oh, we’re just fine now”. Charles Koch also talks about how licensing laws hurt poor people because often times they have limited access to capital. Koch points to driving a taxicab (which requires expensive medallions which can be tens of thousands of dollars if not hundreds of thousands). In addition to regulations that keep people out of certain industries the minimum wage also prevents people at the bottom from getting job since the minimum wage requires business owners to pay labor higher prices. The minimum wage prevents people from getting their first job which hinders not only getting a future job but doesn’t teach young people the skills they need for the “real world”.

The YouTube ad video explains that Americans earning just $34,000 are in the top 1% of income worldwide. If you do any historical analysis on this amount it put Americans making this amount in the top .1% from not only a worldwide perspective but a historical perspective as well. What would John D. Rockefeller pad for an iPhone? This ThinkProgress article points out that Charles Koch is already in the 1% and many Americans are not. ThinkProgress confuses  income and net worth. The article mentions the $34,000 which represents income (yearly) and then goes on to say that “Meanwhile, Charles and Davis Koch are the ones comfortable in the 1% with a net worth of about 1 million times that figure”. Net worth and annual income are two completely different numbers. My income could be $10,000 and my net worth can be $1 million. Net worth represents years of saved income and invested income while income represents what a person earns in one year. 

ThinkProgress then goes on to argue that Charles Koch is wrong in wanting to get rid of the minimum wage since apparently raising the minimum wage to $9 per hour would add $48 billion in economic growth. Studies like these never take into account incentives. Yes, if I took everyone making minimum wage and used a "multipler" it by a higher wage and then factored in a Keynesian multiplier I would arrive at $48 billion, however in the real world firms and small businesses would simply fire workers, reduce hours worked by hourly employees, and or find ways around the minimum wage (which isn’t taken into account). Why stop at $9 per hour. $20, $30, or even $50/hour sound pretty good yet I don’t hear anyone arguing for that as the minimum wage. The problem is people are paid for their value not what we think someone ought to be paid. Productive people are paid more. If someone can only produce $5 of value per hour why do we mandate a business should be forced to pay them $7 per hour. Why don’t we force producers of milk to sell their products at $2/gallon? 

Berkshire Hathaway and U.S. Government Pollute More Than Koch Industries

One thing that constantly bothers me is when people claim how much Koch Industries pollutes. People forget Koch Industries is one of the largest energy companies in the world. One study that people on the left always love pointing to is a University of Massachusetts Index called Greenhouse Polluters 100 Index. What is fascinating is that U.S. government is #4 on the list and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is #5.  If you add the percentage from both the U.S. government and Berkshire Hathaway is it over 2.2% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Koch Industries comes in at #27 and only has 0.36%. Now if people were complaining on principle wouldn't liberals be just as made about the pollution generated by the U.S. government and Berkshire Hathway as they are about Koch Industries? Berkshire Hathaway is mainly in the insurance business (they also own Dairy Queen and Star Furniture) and still generate more pollution than the "oil conglomerate" Koch Industries.

Actually Koch Industries has been reducing their pollution over time. This is from the May 2013 Koch Industries Discovery magazine.

"Since 1997, Flint Hills Resources’ refineries have reduced average per-barrel criteria air emissions by 76 percent. In 2004, FHR earned a Clean Air Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for reduced flaring and emissions.  In 2000, FHR refineries averaged almost  two hours of flaring per day. In 2012,  flaring at Pine Bend Refinery totaled just six-and-a-half hours for the entire year. As for other Koch companies, at Georgia-Pacific, sulfur dioxide emissions have been reduced by almost half since 2000. Total suspended solids in wastewater have been cut by 38 percent since 2005."

Even if you don't believe this is true Koch Industries since January 2009 has won close to 750 awards for safety and environmental excellence. What is even more amazing is that Koch Industries Pipeline earlier this year announced they went 8 million working hours (11 years) incident free.

Charles Koch: Playing Scrabble, Pilates, and Wall-Street Deals

Source: Koch Industries

In a recent Wall-Street Journal article Charles Koch and Koch Industries talked about how the company these days don’t mind minority stakes in companies instead of purchasing whole companies (the last large merger for Koch was when they purchased Georgia Pacific in 2005. The company bought preferred stock in American Greetings Corporation in order to help the company go private. Koch Industries probably saw a good return (the media would interpret this story as “Koch Industries Controls How People Say I Love You”). Koch also paid $1.5 billion for just a 44% stake in Guardian Industries (glass maker).  In another WSJ article Mr. Hagerty discusses just how Koch got into the glass business. Koch actually was examining Guardian Industries for 7-8 years. Koch Industries actually looks at roughly 100 deals at any given time. Guardian didn’t want to go public after their owner died and Koch was interested in the company so Koch installed one of their executives to become CEO.  Guardian creates energy efficient glass (energy conservation sounds green to me) and supplies the glass screens that are used in cell phones.

In another article written by James Hagerty of the Wall-Street Journal Koch Industries says they don’t attempt hostile takeovers of companies. Koch Industries does get a lot of calls from people who need capital who don’t know anyone on Wall-Street. Koch Industries doesn’t get into businesses just because the margins are good. This might be due to their view about creating long term value for customers. Koch Industries actually exited the gas station business years ago when they learned running a convenience store really wasn't that convenient.  Charles Koch points out that being private is better because this way the company doesn’t have to always try to explain their actions to outside investors. There is some truth to this as public companies are frequently covered by analysts who can make a stock move a large amount on just a small bit of information. As Charles Koch said in this interview back in 2007 if a company “misses quarterly earnings projections by a penny, and their stock goes down 10 percent”.  In fact Charles Koch admits in this interview that if Koch Industries had been a public company he would have been fired long ago.

In this WSJ article (again by Hagerty) Charles Koch talks about the possibility of playing scrabble. What is interesting is that Charles Koch at the age of 77 still goes to work and keeps himself productive. According to Koch he wants to work every day and exercise his mind. He gets up early at 6:30 A.M. and is working by 7:30 A.M. (he no longer drives himself to work). Koch does do a lot of reading and in this article back from 1994 he was reading 3 hours a day. Koch also spends time working out on the elliptical, lifting weights, and even does Pilates. What I found interesting was Koch use to run 30 miles a week (about 4 miles a day). He says he was pushing himself too hard and his knees gave out (he actually had both of his knees replace according to this profile done by The Wichita Eagle last year). The interesting part of the interview is when Koch asks what he should be doing with his time. The interviewer suggests that Koch play scrabble and Koch responds by saying “That’d be something!”. I personally would suggest Mr. Koch write an autobiography in order to explain how he became successful and so historians don’t write their own history about Charles Koch and Koch Industries. 

Bonus: Notice Charles Koch on his bookshelf have books from Dr. Walter E. Williams and Thomas Sowell

John Stossel: Is America Number One? (Video) and Transcript

Here is video from a special John Stossel did in the late 1990's. This program could air today and would still be relevant. The transcript for the show is here.