The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 31

'''PH Finance The Indianapolis Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1985 PAGE 31 Off The Peru set to seize U.S. oil company i WS rp 0 wife No fish on Friday Interna Members of the Seafarers tional Union picket on the dock with boat owners getting the remainder. Boat owners, citing bad catches, want a 50-50 profit split. Federal mediation is to begin after Wednesday. higher share of profits from their catch, went on strike Friday.

The fishermen earn 58 percent of the catch on large boats and 64 percent on scallop boats, Bedford, Mass. About 750 fishermen. rejecting boat owners demands Business: a year of change Deficits loomed over U.S. economy ceiling once again to accomodate an accumulated U.S. indebtedness exceeding $2 trillion.

Meanwhile, a high-flying U.S. dollar bought a flood of low-cost imports, sending the nation's trade deficit to nearly $150 billion and provoking a wave of protectionist legislation on Capitol Hill much of it aimed at Japan, which accounted for one-third of the trade imbalance. A strong dollar makes foreign products cheaper at home but U.S. products more expensive abroad. ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington For most Americans, 1985 was a year of prosperity, of low inflation and of moderately rising incomes.

But two ominously expanding deficits In trade and govern ment spending darkened the economic picture. Throughout the year, these twin deficits dominated the nation's fiscal policy debate. An annual budget deficit soaring over S200 billion provoked a year-long confrontation Tape FROM STAR WIRE SERVICES Texaco supported More than a dozen lawmak ers from all over the country have urged a federal judge to grant Texaco a 'meaningful right to appeal a record judgment won against Texaco by Pennzoil according to documents filed in the U.S. District Court at White Plains. N.Y.

Letters, telegrams and briefs have come from Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, Sen. Russell Long, D- and others. "The uncer tainty of Texaco's future could have an adverse effect on the entire American soci ety," wrote Rep. Joseph Dio-Guardi in whose district Texa-co's White Plains headquarters is based. Dole detailed how the bankruptcy or destruction of Texaco would affect his home state.

He urged the court to "rule in a manner so that Texaco has a meaningful right to appeal." Enters not-guilty plea The former president of Cincinnati's Home State Sav ings Bank pleaded not guilty to charges the thrift made improper transactions with a Florida securities company whose collapse triggered an Ohio savings-and-loan crisis. Burton M. Bongard entered the written plea, which was accepted by Hamilton County (Ohio) Common Pleas Judge Thomas Nurre. Nurre said Bongard. 44.

New York, could remain free on his own recog nizance but must appear at the Hamilton County sheriff's department by Jan. 10 for fingerprinting and photographing. He was the fourth of five indicted businessmen to enter not-guilty pleas. Market strike goes on A violent. 7'2-week-old strike-lockout at Southern California supermarkets seems likely to stretch Into 1986 after meat cutters re fused to join Teamsters In rat- ifvini! tentative settlements that included concessions to emnlovers.

Members of six Southern California locals ol the meat cutters union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, reiected the pact, voting 2.040 against me agreement to 1.640 in favor. However, the other union in volved in the dispute, the Teamsters, overwhelmingly anoroved a separate tentative settlement that called for them to make fewer conces sions than the butchers. Rezoning for Toyota The rezonlng process need ed to pave the way for the $800 million Toyota Motor Corp. auto-assembly plant to be built in Scott county. Is set to begin next week.

The Georgetown-Scott County Joint Planning Commission will meet in a workshop Mon day to begin a revision of the countv comprehensive pian. Part of the revision will be to change the site's zoning from adrlcu ture to industrial use. according to city planner Steve Mooney. Mooney said Monday's meeting will be fol lowed bv about 15 more next month, adding Toyota officials have told him they want to have a groundbreaking cere mony on the site on ten, RV ownership up The recreational vehicle Industry Is getting Into high Cear as more American lam- llles own or rent motorhomes, trailers, van conversions and truck campers, according to an industry survey. A sam pling of almost 2,500 house- ho ds bv the Kecreauonai ve hicle Industry Association and the University ol Michigan Survey Research Center found that RV ownership has Increased 22 percent since 1980.

when hifih tuei prices curtailed RV sales and driving vacations. Blimp war begins The Goodvear Tire and Rub ber Co. has filed lawsuits In Nebraska and Florida In an attempt to stop Fuji Photo Film USA Inc. from using a blimp In Its advertising, say ing It wants to protect Its "long-establlsnen trade mark." Leverage key to business takeovers ASSOCIATED PRESS Lima, Peru President Alan Garcia said Friday the government was taking over the assets in Peru of Belco Petroleum Corp. because the New York-based company refused to accept new conditions for exploration and production.

Garcia and the Los Angeles- based Occidental Petroleum Corp. also announced they had reached an agreement in principle under which Occidental would give up its lucrative tax breaks in Peru in return for access to new oil fields. Garcia told reporters at a second press conference Friday night in the Government Palace that Occidental had agreed to invest $267 million in exploration in new He described it as the biggest exploration program in Peru's history. Oxy-Bridas. an American- Argentine consortium, also will continue to operate here but under terms of its original contract, which set the tax level for foreign oil companies at 68 percent rather than the 41 percent to which it was lowered in 1 980 by the previous government, Garcia said.

Garcia said government negotiators and Occidental representatives had signed a basic agreement Friday. He said the final contract with operat ing details would be signed within 60 days. In exchange for accepting the tax increase. Occidental obtained a 30-year right to explore for oil in what it described as "a promising new block" of 24 million unexplored acres in the southern Peruvian jungle. Garcia took office July 28 proclaiming a nationalistic, anti-imperialist foreign policy.

He has demanded that the companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars obtained from tax exemptions in exploration of new areas as a condition for continuing to operate In Peru. He said Belco was being na-, tionalized because it did not give "an acceptable response" by Thursday's deadline to Pe-ru's conditions for granting new contracts. Belco has assets of $400 million in Peru and expects to earn $25 million to $30 million from its Peruvian operations in 1985. according to Nancy Davis, a spokeswoman in Houston for HNG-lnter- North the energy compa-1 ny that owns Belco. Belco officials are attempting to talk with the Peruvian government about a way to resolve the disagreement short of nationalization, she said, adding.

"We consider the matter still open." Union Bank acquisition finalized Indiana National acquisition of Union Bank Trust Co. of Delphi has been completed. Closing agreements were signed Friday. Indiana National announced. Union Bank was purchased for $12.9 million.

Union Bank shareholders are to receive $107.50 In cash for each share of their stock. On Sept. 30 Union Bank reported assets of $66.7 million. Indiana National listed assets of $3.5 billion on the same date. The acquisition Is Indiana National's fourth since the state's banking laws were changed this year to" allow bank holding companies to own banks In more than one county.

The others were Lafayette National Bank In Lafayette. Lowell National Bank in Lowell and Fidelity Bank of Indiana In Carmel. INDUSTRIAL SALES PERSON FOR OEM MECHANICAL COMPONENTS NEEDED FOR INDIANA INCLUDING LOUISVILLE ANO EVANSVILLI KEARNEY SALES CO. BOX 45029 WESTLAKE, OHIO 44143 ASSOCIATED PRESS New York More than 2.000 businesses came under new ownership during 1985. with the proposed S6.2 billion leveraged buyout of Beatrice Cos.

representing one ol the biggest acquisitions of the year. Some other companies namely Unocal Corp. and Phil lips Petroleum Co. resorted to malor and costly reorganizations to keep their independence. some cases, the courts were forced to decide the legality at New tor a between President Reagan and Congress on spending cuts culminating in congressional agreement on a novel piece of legislation requiring deeper cuts each year until a balanced budget is achieved in 1991.

The austerity plan, devised by Sens. Philip Gramm, R-Texas. and Warren Rudman, quickly won Mr. Reagan's support and gradually that of more and more lawmakers. Meanwhile.

Congress was required to raise the national debt of tactics used by "corporate raiders" and corresponding defensive moves by incumbent managements. Each side won its share. Through the first nine months of 1985. there were 2,277 completed takeovers, leveraged buyouts and other deals valued at 81 million or more, up from 2.169 a year earlier, according to Mergers Acquisitions Data Base, a Philadelphia-based research service. In a leveraged buyout, the 1985 that strike activity was at Its lowest level since World War II.

The Air Line Pilots Association waged a moderately successful strike In 1985 against United Airlines. Although the union wound up conceding a two-tier wage scale to management, its picket lines cut back the airline's operations so severely that United was forced to sharply scale back Its demands. During the year, unions launched a number of organizing Initiatives, which will take years to come to fruition. Twenty-two affiliated unions Dow rallies, gains to recoup week's losses, Page 34 keep rising at this rate indefinitely. At the very least, they say.

there Is likely sooner or later to be a "correction" that cools down the euphoria of late 1985. Still, many observers say the conditions that have helped create the boom on Wall Street persist as a new year begins. What's more, they look for a large Influx of cash Into the Investment markets before the April 15 Income tax deadline, the peak season for individual retirement accounts. "The Individual will be look- Unions edge toward a comeback More than 300 bills were introduced in Congress to protect a wide range of industries and products devastated by imports, ranging from shoes and computer parts to waterbeds. Warning Congress to avoid a protectionist "stampede," the president took several steps to open more foreign markets to U.S.

products. The administration also ioined with other Indus trialized nations in a concerted effort to drive down the value of the dollar. clude the pending Beatrice pur chase and General Electric proposed $6.28 billion acquisi tion of RCA the parent of National Broadcasting Co. The GE-RCA deal represents the largest non-oil corporate acquisi tion in U.S. history.

Other familiar companies that lost or were about to lose their independence in 1985 were General Foods Nabisco Brands Revlon Rich ardson-Vicks Hughes Air craft Co. and G.D. Searle Co. The concept of associate membership emerged after the AFL-CIO Issued a candid appraisal of labor's weaknesses and a comprehensive strategy for overcoming them. Many of the events of 1985 resulted In meager gains for organized labor.

Major collective bargaining settlements reached from January to September provided 1.6 million workers average annual wage Increases of 2.3 percent In the first year of the agreement, an all-time low. In the same period, Inflation was running nearly a full percentage point higher. something we don't anticipate," Smith maintained. The editors of the Merrill Lynch Market Letter declared: "There could be temporary pull-backs In the weeks ahead, but we expect the advance to continue Into the early months of 1986. Additional declines In Interest rates could be one source of new fuel for the rally.

"Another encouraging factor. In our view. Is that the march of market Indexes to record hlglis has not generated the kind of excessive speculation that frequently develops at this stage of extended advances In the ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington Labor unions In 1985 embarked on a modest new beginning, after a series of setbacks that made the first half of this decade the most disastrous period for organized labor since the 1920s. The AFL-CIO embraced a number of fresh Ideas In an attempt to halt steady membership losses, which totaled half a mil--lion for the federation from 1982 to 1984 and 2.7 million from 1980 to 1984 for the labor movement overall. Labor moved so cautiously In purchase is made mostly with borrowed money, which is repaid from the acquisition's operations or the sale of its assets.

The dollar value of completed mergers through the year's first nine months was $88 billion, only slightly below the year-earlier level of $93 billion when the two largest deals in history were completed Chevron $13.4 billion purchase of Gulf Corp. and Texaco $10.1 billion buyout of Getty Oil Co. The latest figures also ex of the AFL-CIO committed themselves to the concept of associate membership, which would Involve the packaging of money-saving benefits to the rank and file and to potential new members, who would become eligible by paying an annual fee. For example, associate members of a union might be able to get cut-rate life Insurance or discounts on travel. The aim Is to keep in touch with the 28 million former members who have left the labor movement.

In many cases to work at companies that aren't unionized. Inu to make an investment In an environment completely different from what he or she has known over the past five to 10 years an environment now characterized by relatively low short-term Interest rates and continued low Inflation." said Greg Smith at Prudentlal-Bache Securities. "This makes commodities and real asset Investments far from compelling. It also makes longer-term fixed-Income Investments and equities much more attractive relative to other Investments." What could go wrong? "The only real risk to our outlook Is a rise In short-term Interest rates. A bull market that never stopped ASSOCIATED PRESS New York The stock market will have a hard act to follow in 1986, but many forecasters contend there Is still a lot of life In the big bull market on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones average of 30 Industrials, which closed out 1984 at 1,211.57, passed the 1.300 level for the first time with a strong advance last May. And It was Just warming up. After a pause In late summer, the market embarked on a dramatic rise that carried the Dow Jones Industrials to 1,400 and then 1.500 late In the year. Market analysts say their experience, and simple logic, tells them (hat stock prices cannot m.AA,."'.