ABKO Properties was a joint venture between Wichita, Kansas real estate entrepreneur George Ablah and Wichita-based Koch Industries formed specifically to purchase Chrysler Realty Corporation in the late 1970s from a hard-pressed Lee Iacocca.
Koch Industries is ranked 2 among the Forbes list of largest private companies.
ABKO purchased around 840 Chrysler automotive dealership sites around the country controlled by Iacocca in 1979 for slightly over $100 million in cash.
[1] Under the leadership of Ablah and his team, Chrysler Realty president Ed Homer (for a brief time), executive vice president Corliss (Corky) Nelson of Koch,[2] acquisition/disposition specialists Wayne Delfino and Frank Mills, and attorney John Schippel, among others, ABKO set forth a strategy to diversify Chrysler Realty Corporation by way of liquidating non-performing Chrysler dealership properties by tax-free exchange and sale.
In 1983, Iacocca, assisted by a government bailout he organized, repurchased 446 of the dealerships in a measure aimed at strengthening the Chrysler dealer network.