Foundation Gets $12.4 Million in Wynn’s Stock

The Wynn Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization begun by Wynn’s International Inc. founder Carl E. Wynn, has received 533,250 shares of Wynn’s common stock, worth $12.4 million at Thursday’s closing price of $23.38 a share.

The stock represents a 13.9% stake in the Fullerton automotive lubricants and parts maker that was started by Wynn in 1939. The shares were willed to the foundation by Wynn. He died in February, 1988, at age 92.

Income from the stock dividends will provide nearly $320,000 a year for the foundation, a philanthropic, nonprofit organization. In recent years, Wynn’s International has paid regular quarterly dividends of 15 cents a share, said Greg Gibbons, corporate vice president and general counsel.

Wesley E. Bellwood, Wynn’s chairman and head of the foundation, could not be reached for comment. But Gibbons said the Wynn estate still holds about 68,000 shares of Wynn International stock “as a contingency fund.” Any shares remaining when probate of the estate is completed, he said, will be transferred to the foundation.

“We expect that the foundation ultimately will have about 15% of the company stock,” said Gibbons. That would make it the company’s third largest shareholder.

The other major blocks are controlled by two money management funds in New York on behalf of their investors.