Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 46

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC MARKET SUMMARY, E4. NYSE, E5. NASDAQ, AM EX, E6. MUTUALS E7 ititiy WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 20, 1996 Editor, Marian Frank 238-4438 BUSINESS BRIEFS illionaires watch their pennies i i Ford their most popular vehicle PICTURE OF WEALTH DOW JONES INDUSTRIALS 50.69 Dow climbs The-Dow Jones industrial rose 50.69, to 6,397.60 nearly piercing the for the first, time just five weeks after its first close" above 6,000. Story- chart, Page E4.

Following is a portrait of the typical millionaire: A 57-year-old man, married with three children. Self-employed. Involved in "dull-normal" business, such as welding contractor, pest controller or paving contractor. Average annual income of $247,000. Average household net worth of $3.7 million.

Homeowner, with average property value of $320,000. First-generation affluent. Lives below means, wears inexpensive suits and drives U.S.-made car. Has enough money saved to live about 1 0 years without working. Attended public school, but children attend private schools.

Works 45 to 55 hours a week. Invests about 20 percent of taxable income each year. By Marc Rice Associated Press ATLANTA So you got that big promotion and raise. You're thinking about buying a luxury car. You need to sharpen your wardrobe with some snazzy new suits.

Maybe it's time to move into a bigger house. There's something else you should do, Thomas J. Stanley says: STOP! Stanley, who has become a millionaire by studying the habits of millionaires, says the key to being rich is holding onto the money. And that means consumption takes a back seat to doggedly cultivating financial security and independence. "The real problem for people that make good or moderate or high incomes that don't accumulate wealth is they spend money on things that have absolutely no value," he said.

Stanley said the public image of high-living, ultrarich moguls distorts the truth about millionaires. The typical U.S. millionaire there are See MILLIONAIRES, page E10 Source: The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.

Bringing CMna to Phoenix FCC rules; violated legislation court told 1 'Renegade agency upends phone act By Scott Ritter Dow Jones News Service WASHINGTON The Federaf Communications Commission took a' "perfectly legible statute and turned it on its head" when it wrote a batch, of rules aimed at opening local telephone markets to competition, group of lawmakers has told a federal Appeals Court. In a brief filed with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louis, lawmakers including Rep, Billy Tauzin, and Rep. John Dingell, called the FCCy rules "an act of extraordinary, arrogance." i "The commission is behaving like a renegade agency," the brief concluded. "It appears to believe that ft isn't accountable to anyone, and should be free to substitute its own judgments for congressional direc--tives." The Appeals Court is hearing, challenges to the FCC rules, whick set terms under which would-be i competitors can plug into local i See FCC, pageE3 i i Voices urged! to pressure utility rates Development aims to join East, West, breaks ground ny te I7SSI i i Mona ReederStaff photographer Local and Chinese officials (above) attend groundbreaking Tuesday for a $90 million Chinatownlike office and retail complex in midtown Phoenix.

Benjamin Lau, 10, (below) performed with brother Kevin as a dragon. By Jane Larson Staff writer A Chinese megacorporation summoned drums, dancing dragons and a Feng Shui master to the groundbreaking Tuesday of a Chinatown-like office and retail complex it predicts will lure international business and tourism to midtown Phoenix. The Chinese Cultural Center is the first such U.S. venture for Beijing-based COFCO, a conglomerate whose businesses range from food products to real-estate development. BNU Corp.

of Phoenix, one of its U.S. subsidiaries, is developing the $90 million project. Company officials said they chose metropolitan Phoenix for the project because of the area's tremendous growth and its potential to attract the kind of international companies that now do business in Los Angeles or New York. "The city is developing rapidly. It is growing, and we still see potential," said Sun ZenChi, executive vice president of COFCO.

The city's prospects and COF-CO's relations with U.S. partners in finance and commerce "give us confidence in this area," he said. Creating a Chinatown-like development similar to those in larger cities will make Asian companies feel more comfortable locating here, too, company officials said. The project's first phase will feature 160,000 square feet of professional offices, retail shops and restaurants, along with a BoifA offers stock options BankAmerica the nation's third largest bank, said Tuesday that it will offer stock to 85,000 employees, or 92 percent of its worldwide workforce. The program will give most hourly and part-time employees options initially to purchase from 50 to 90 BankAmerica common shares every six months for the next three years.

In doing so, BankAmerica is betting that workers with a stake in the company's will work harder at improving customer service, and at other facets of their responsibilities. Marvel plans more job cuts Marvel Entertainment Group Inc. said it plans to fire about 115 people, or one-third of the workforce at its comics-books business, as the company looks for ways to stop losing money. The job cuts are in addition to 28 positions that are currently vacant at the group, according to Terry Stewart, a Marvel spokesman. Marvel, which is controlled by financier Ronald Perelman, employs about 1,100 people, he said.

Marvel's comic-book business generates about 15 percent of the company's revenue. The move comes a week after Perelman offered to pay $350 million for 410 million new Marvel shares to help save the company from filing for bankruptcy. Ia January, the publisher of the Spider-Man', and X-Men comics said it would cut 275 jobs from its comic-book and trading-card businesses, resulting in a fourth-quarter charge of $25 million. Since then, the company has consolidated its trading-card publishing, streamlined operations and shed some Marvel Comics titles. Netscape in new strategies Netscape Communications Corp.

is expected today to unveil software that lets publishers and businesses broadcast information to personal computers. Netscape also is expected to disclose agreements with PointCast Inc. and Marimba Inc. that let their broadcast services work with Netscape's new software, code-named Constellation. Constellation is being added to the next version of Netscape's Internet browser as a response to the update of Microsoft browser, which has similar technology.

The updated versions of the two companies' browsers are expected early next year. Publishers on the Internet and companies using Netscape's software on their corporate computer networks will be able automatically to send information, including news, stock quotes, corporate memos and files to computer users' browsers. Home building at yearly low Builders slashed housing construction in October to the lowest level in a year. All regions except the West shared in the cutback. The 5.1 percent decline was broad-based and included both single and multifamily the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

Housing starts totaled a seasonally adjusted 1.37 million annual rate in October, Tdown from 1.44 million in September and JQ.9 percent below the recent peak of 1.53 million in August, according to the Commerce report. Sumitomo repayment sought A shareholder is demanding that Sumitomo Corp. executives reimburse the international trading business for $2.6 billion" in losses from unauthorized copper trading. The formal demand was submitted to Sumitomo on Monday by Kazuyoshi YUoka, president of Osaka-based textile maker, Yubo Sangyo. It accused the Sumitomo executives of improperly supervising a former star trader, Yasuo Hamanaka, arrested last month, has been charged with forging documents to hide 10 years of unauthorized trades.

His lawyer, Hidesato Sekine, said earlier that Hamanaka pjans to plead guilty to the forgery charges, without ruling out the possibility that Hamanaka may implicate his bosses." A formal demand is a necessary step if the shareholder seeks to sue the executives. i Chinese supermarket and formal Chinese gardens complete with pagodas, said Kurt Reuman, assistant to BNU President Elizabeth Mann. That phase will cover 8.5 acres of the 24-acre site on the southwestern corner of 44th and Mc-Kinley streets, strategically located near Sky Harbor International Airport and between downtown and the East Valley, he said. It is to be completed in late 1997. BNU is negotiating with possible tenants now, most of which would be firms new to the Valley, he said.

Later phases would include two midrise office towers of 200,000 square feet each, a hotel and a second garden office building, Reuman said. COFCO is also known as Chinese National Cereals, Oils Foodstuffs Import Export Corp. Fortune magazine counts it among the world's 500 largest corporations, with revenue topping $12.3 billion in 1995. That made it bigger than such American business icons as Delta Air Lines, May Department Stores and Walt Disney. BNU, which includes capital-and property-management companies, has been in Phoenix sinqe 1993 and has 80 employees, Reuman said.

About 200 people attended the groundbreaking, where colorful balloons, streamers and refreshment booths sprang from the bulldozed expanse of dust and dirt. Ceremonies included a blessing of See CHINESE, pageEW By David Wichner Staff writer Consumers will face dramatic changes in electric-utility service and possibly higher energy bills as state regulators complete rules to' open the electric-utility industry to competition, consumer advocates warn. But it's not too late to learn how competition will affect your pocket-book and make your voice heard amid the pinstripe legions of the biJJ. utilities and commercial ratepayers. Key players in the rule-making1 process will host a public forum in Phoenix next week to bring consum-, ers up to speed and answer questions about the competition rules, and consumer advocates are urging people to take part.

"People have to get involved. If they don't, it will be done for them See VOICES, page Ei I New generation Alliance's many successes saving Phoenix's west side i 1 Ji jQk i in in i' NAAMAN N1CKELL Republic Columnist Brenda Priddy and Co. A 1997 Chevrolet Corvette is tested recently near Phoenix. The fifth generation 'Vette, likely to be unveiled early next year, is being hotly awaited by enthusiasts. Besides its new styling, the fiberglass two-seater has a new 350-cubic-inch V-8 engine, new interior and suspension refinements.

Price tag: around $40,000. Working quietly and persistently, the West Phoenix Business Alliance is bringing a new sense of pride and promise to businesses and residents west of 19th Avenue, between Camelback Road and Interstate 10. The organization was formed a little over three years ago when a handful of business owners and managers, neighborhood organizations and concerned citizens decided it was time to do something about jobs, crime, pollution and other factors that affected area growth. It also had and still has the strong backing of Phoenix City Councilman John Nelson, who originated the idea for the Alliance. Keeping the Alliance together and focused on projects was a bit of a struggle in its first year of existence, but gradually a solid organizational base emerged on which the Alliance has continued to build.

Some of the Alliance's early successes included an attack on Ford van ranks safest in insurance crash test graffiti; partnerships and mentoring with schools in the area; and increased networking among neighborhood groups. "The cumulative effect of what has been done is positive for west Phoenix," said Kathleen Reinert, president of the Alliance after it had been in operation for about a year. Generating a positive image for west Phoenix also has been a See NICKELL, page E2 By Randolph E. Schmld Associated Press WASHINGTON The Ford Windstar van outperformed eight competitors in protecting occupants in crash tests conducted by an insurance group. The Windstar was the only van to earn a "food" rating when it hit a barrier at 40 miles per hour, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported.

At the other end of the scale, the poorest performance was turned in by the Pontiac Trans Sport, a massive collapse of its passenger compartment, the institute reported. In general, vans have good Jri See WINDSTAR, page ElO Compiled by staff and reports from the Associated Press, Dow Jones News Service and Bloomberg Business News. METALS AND COMMODITIES: ONE DOLLAR EQUALS: Yen Dollar N.Y. Pofif Merc fit 1.342 n.i. Merc 107.40 0.85 378.20 Pnimrt INTEREST RATES Tuesday ago Tuesday ago -T Prime rate 8.25 8.75 6-month T-bills 5.04 5.26 ti Discount rate 5.00 5.25 1 0-year T-notes 6.14 5.94.

Federal funds 5.00 5.71 30-year T-bonds 6.43 6.29 3-month T-bill 5.01 5.37 Avg. 30-yr, mortgage Troy oz." TUESDAY'S CLOSING QUOTES Dow Jones: 500: AMEX: 6,397.60 742.16 584.64 50.69 0.46 NYSE: Composite Nasdaq: 391.80 volume: 1,262.62 1.90 561,235,630 8.05 Handy Harman jr 4-875 Rounder Cononfeo" 72.42 Zi 0.13 D0-61, Barrel Peso 7.882 NjCf 1.5053 .0038 Troy oz. iWuaM, fB7..