Fluorocarbon Founder Will Sell 330,000 Shares

George L. Angle, vice chairman and the largest shareholder in Fluorocarbon Co., said Monday that he will sell nearly half of his 695,000 shares of common stock in the Laguna Niguel-based company he founded in 1955.

The 330,000-share sale, registered by Fluorocarbon with the Securities and Exchange Commission because of the volume of shares involved, will reduce Angle’s ownership of the company’s common stock from approximately 16% to 8%.

Angle said he is selling the shares to help pay off personal bank debts and buy convertible subordinated debentures issued by Fluorocarbon in January.

Fluorocarbon common stock closed at $16 per share Monday, down 25 cents, in over-the-counter trading. Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc. is the sole underwriter for the sale and Angle will pay for the underwriting costs.

Ken Holland, Fluorocarbon treasurer, said that the sale of Angle’s shares will “get a little bigger public float out there. One thing we’d like is to have more public ownership.” Angle personally owns 664,000 shares. An additional 31,000 shares are in the name of his wife and two minor children, Holland said.

Of Fluorocarbon’s 4.3 million shares of common stock, Angle and other insiders--including Fluorocarbon Chairman Peter Churm--own 1.2 million shares, or about 28% of outstanding shares, Holland said. “Insiders don’t trade,” Holland said. “We’d much rather have a broader base of public shareholders because brokers are more interested in your stock if there is more volume traded.”

Both Angle and Holland said the sale is principally motivated by Angle’s desire to diversify his investments.

“I’m 58 years old,” Angle said when reached in Lake Tahoe where he was on a ski vacation with his family, “and I’ve been advised for about two decades that I shouldn’t have this much tied up in one investment.”

Another reason Angle cited for the sale is bank debt from loans of more than $2 million to another company he serves as a director. Although Angle refused to name the specific company involved, he has been a longtime director of Costa Mesa-based Willard Co., a manufacturer of fiberglass products.

Fluorocarbon, which manufactures rubber and plastics products, posted record operating earnings for its third fiscal quarter ending Oct. 31, 1985, and, according to Churm, anticipates record year-end results. For the nine months ending Oct. 31, Fluorocarbon recorded earnings from operations of $4.1 million, up 24% from $3.1 million during the same period in 1984.

In January, the company sold $25 million in convertible subordinated debentures. The 25-year debentures pay 8% interest annually and can be converted into Fluorocarbon common stock at a rate of $20.16 per share at any time over the life of the debentures.

Roughly half of the proceeds from the sale will be used to repay Fluorocarbon’s $12.4 million in debts. The remainder, Angle said, “gives us an enormous opportunity for expansion through bank borrowing and acquisition.”

In 30 years of operation, Fluorocarbon has bought between 30 and 40 companies, Angle said, “which has kept our company alert about getting into fields complimentary to the ones we’re already in. Philosophically, things look pretty good this year for more acquisition. We’ll be doing some shopping around in the next six months.”

Fluorocarbon, which sold its semiconductor division last February, operates 24 plants in 14 states and one plant in Belgium.