Business: Happy Early New Year

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Last week, moreover, A.M.C. reported that in the first nine months of the fiscal year, it earned $17.7 million, compared with a $48 million loss in the same period in 1967. In the third quarter of 1968, the company went $2.56 million in the red, but only because of a bookkeeping loss in the sale of its last nonautomotive division, appliance-making Kelvinator.

Loss though it was, the Kelvinator sale had A.M.C. executives dancing all the way to the banks—the 24 banks to which A.M.C. at one time owed $95 million. Using some $20 million of the proceeds, the company has whittled the debt down to $28.6 million, expects to pay the rest by year's end. Wall Street seems to see that as a sure sign of turnaround, and last week the company was huddling with Manhattan moneymen over plans to raise $50 million in new capital. The badly needed long-term deal would be used to bankroll new dealerships and build new models.