The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 16

Stye Bcs Jlloincs RccfcUv RICK JOST, Business Editor, 515-284-8258 TUESDAY, May 25, 1993 Grain Prices Lower Wheat futures slid, partly because of slack export sales, and pulled other grains and soybeans along. 1 Inside on Page 7S Lennox Bond Hearing A public hearing is scheduled on $5 million in MarshaUtown bonds to help Lennox. Inside on Page 7S Business 50 Jobs Already Added Iowa firm lands bi contract in Russia QWDUP Dow Bonds 30 Industrials 30-year Treasuries them Russian immigrants also, and support staff. About a half-dozen staff members are in Russia now, Koder said. Koder noted that conditions in the former Soviet Union are unstable, but says Compressor Controls is working on agreements designed to use letters of credit and export payment insurance to back up the Russian company's commitment to pay.

Roper says the company has already received an $8 million advance payment. The seven-year deal has been worked out, Koder said, but it is subject to annual budgetary planning by the Russian company. a year by reducing the amount of natural gas lost through inefficient operations. Compressor Controls was founded in the 1970s by a Russian immigrant, Naum Staroselsky, the company's president. Compressor Controls had to compete against other international firms to win the contract.

But it had points in its favor because it has other Russian-born engineers on its staff and even has a computer that uses the Russian language, Koder said. Compressor's work force now stands at 183, up from 133 a year ago, Koder said. He expects it to top 200 by the end of the year. New hires include engineers, many of hope, executive director of the Iowa International Development Foundation, which promotes relations between Iowa and the former Soviet Union. Under the first year of the agreement, Compressor Controls will supply and install computerized control systems on up to 471 compressors located at 35 natural gas pumping stations operated by Gazprom in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, according to a written statement from Compressor's parent company, Roper Industries Inc.

of Commerce, Ga. The company told The Associated Press it expects to eventually save the Russian agency $1 billion trols has already added 50 people to its payroll, primarily because of the contract, the biggest in the company's history, said David Koder, the firm's chief financial officer. "It's a great contract from our point of view," said Koder. The $51 million agreement is for the first year of what is planned as a seven-year agreement in which Compressor Controls would sell about $350 million worth of equipment to Gazprom, a huge Russian company that produces and transports natural gas. The $350 million figure would make the deal the largest ever for an Iowa manufacturer and a Russian company, said Phil Stan Compressor Controls, founded by a Russian immigrant, could receive 51 million in the deal.

By WILLIAM RYBERG Register Business Writer An Urbandale company founded by a Russian immigrant has signed a $51 million contract to provide equipment to a Russian agency in what could become the biggest deal so far between an Iowa manufacturing firm and an operation in the former Soviet Union. The Iowa firm, Compressor Con Geld Comex Spot Silver Comex Spot International Cleaning Water New Technology Agreement reached on HDTV Lopez denies GM charge Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, the former General Motors Corp. executive who defected to Volkswagen, denied that he walked off with a hoard of secret documents belonging to the U.S. automaker. Lopez also said he had filed countercharges against GM and was contemplating further legal action.

General Motors filed a criminal complaint in Germany against its former purchasing chief last week, charging that he stole company documents. "My reputation has been damaged," Lopez told a news conference in the German city of Braunschweig. 'A Natural Extension' Allied Life gets into the health business By JOANNE KELLEY Rewer The company will begin selling Medicare-supplement and long-term care insurance. By DALE KASLER Register Business Writer i mmmmmmm as Associated Press Jay Dietrich, an environmental engineer for moves chemicals from polluted water bean IBM plant in Essex Junction, takes a neath the plant. The plant is a pioneer in the sample of water from the plant's ground- cleanup permit program of the Resource water extraction system.

The system re- Conservation and Recovery Act of 1986. Hoover confirms move Hoover confirmed a controversial decision to close its vacuum cleaner factory in eastern France and transfer production to Britain, a union spokesman said. Hoover, which is owned by Newton, Maytag has said it will consolidate all its European production into its Cambuslang, Scotland, facility. Staff at the Longvic plant, near the French town of Dyon, stopped work in protest after management made the announcement to union representatives. Discussions are due to resume today on the laying off of 628 of the plant's 720 staff.

National CBOT, firm charged Federal regulators accused the nation's largest commodities futures exchange and a major accounting firm of sloppy oversight of a Chicago futures firm that later went under. Regulators accused the Chicago Board of Trade and the accounting firm of Coopers Lybrand of failing to catch financial reports that overstated the capital of Stotler and which collapsed amid a flurry of investigations in August 1990. Coopers Lybrand agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying wrongdoing and to pay a record $500,000 fine. The Board of Trade said it would fight the charges. Washington, D.C.

Rival companies and groups put aside their differences Monday and agreed on a single system for high-definition television, removing a major roadblock to its development and arrival in American homes. If approved, the system will set the standard in the United States for HDTV, which will use digital transmission to create TV pictures with movie-like quality. The agreement "could place the U.S. in the forefront of high-definition video technology," the federal advisory panel that announced the pact said. Parties to the agreement are American Telephone Telegraph the David Sarnoff Research Center, General Instrument the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dutch Philips Electronics N.V., Thomson S.A.

of France and Zenith Electronics Corp. The Federal Communications Commission advisory panel said at a news conference that it would review the new standard, which merges rival systems. If approved, any manufacturer wanting to sell TV sets in the U.S. market would have to follow the standard. An industry analyst cautioned, however, that HDTV is years away and will have to co-exist with standard television signals for a generation while the nation slowly moves to the new technology.

"The news that we might be Development Specialist New head for business incubator By WILLIAM RYBERG Register Business Writer Allied Life Insurance Co. of Des Moines entered the health insurance business for the first time Monday. Allied, a small subsidiary of Allied Mutual Insurance announced it would begin selling Medicare-supplement and long-term care insurance. The company will market the policies to existing Allied Life policyholders, said company President Sam Wells. Many of the company's 65,000 customers, of whom 25,000 live in Iowa, are 50 or older, making them prime candidates for those two health policies, he said.

Health insurance "is a natural extension" of Allied's life coverage, he said. Medicare supplement coverage is a fiercely competitive business. Allied Life is able to price the policies more cheaply than many competitors because it can cut back on marketing expenses, Wells said. "We already know who those people are," Wells said. He said Allied Life, with only 67 employees, prides itself on cutting expenses.

The long-term care policy is being offered in part because Allied Life doesn't think President Clinton's health-care reform proposals will adequately address the issue of long-term care, Wells said. In addition, Wells said there is a growing demand for long-term care insurance, thanks to incentives introduced by legislatures in Iowa and elsewhere. Gov. Terry Bran-stad signed into law a bill that makes it easier for people who buy long-term care insurance to receive Medicaid even if they outlive their insurance. i i 1 Kathryn Curry, a vice president at Earlham Savings Bank in West Des Moines, has been selected to be the new executive director of the Golden Circle Center for Business Development, the center announced Monday.

Curry was chosen by the business incubator's board from among 37 candidates. She will succeed Wayne Haines, who has resigned, effective June 30. Curry, who will step into the job moving to one system obviously gives this thing a much better chance of getting off the ground," said John Reidy, who follows media industries for Smith Barney, Harris Co. ices work with small businesses. In a written statement, Eleanore Levy, chairwoman of the incubator's board, said Curry's "background as a specialist in small business development, her extensive experience in small business financing, and her in-depth understanding of successful entrepreneurial characteristics were the primary qualifications we were looking for." Curry said it was too early to talk much about changes at the center.

But she said anything that she has in mind so far involves small enhancements rather than major shifts. The incubator is located on the Ankeny campus of Des Moines Area Community College. A Nebraska native, Curry moved to Iowa in 1988. She holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Doane College in Crete, and a master's in business administration from Kearney State College in Kearney, Neb. The FCC panel said it may rec ommend the system to the full FCC after it completes a series of tests.

The FCC has the final say on whether to adopt the transmission standard. July 1, also has worked at Bankers Trust Co. in Des Moines. She has been a business finance specialist with the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and owned a real estate company in Nebraska. The new system will combine the best elements of four competing ap-.

In Iowa, she has been the recipi proaches. The groups resolved Microsoft unveils system Microsoft Corp. gave a low-key debut of its new computer operating system, Windows NT, and company Chairman Bill Gates warned it's not for everybody. "A lot of people in their rec room, in their kitchen, probably don't need NT," Gates told reporters after the product announcement at the Comdex-Windows World trade show in Atlanta. Microsoft is aiming the $500 program chiefly at companies that are developing networks of PCs and work stations to replace mainframes.

Iowa Insurer's rating affirmed Employers Mutual Casualty Co. of Des Moines was assigned a rating of by A.M. Best Co. in its 1993 Best's Rating Monitor. Employers Mutual's financial strength was affirmed and its rating level of or excellent, was unchanged.

The rating applies to six intercompany pool members, led by Employers Mutual Casualty Co. ent of a U.S. Small Business Admin both business and technical dis Kathryn Curry Nebraska native istration Award for financial serv agreements. FocusUtilities Power line's route sparks unhappiness MKLINDA OGAARDTHE REOISTER Briefcase MIDWEST POWER plans to link existing high voltage lines with a diagonal route. A rniK i.nnnrv 1 County I I I Des Moines WSV, A Also, it will diminish their property values, they say.

"That's prime development land," Lynch said. David Gorsche of Indianola, the group's main spokesman, declined to comment. "No Proof The Iowa Utilities Board, in its order, said: "There is no proof electric or magnetic fields (EMF) create an identifiable health risk." The board said that, although Iowa hasn't adopted EMF standards, Midwest Power designed its transmission line to meet the most restrictive laws that have been adopted in other states. The board said re-use of the existing lower-voltage route was the most efficient proposal by Midwest Power. It would reduce disruption to other landowners, because Midwest Power will be replacing the 16 line anyway.

Combining the two projects also would reduce construction costs and would require the removal of fewer trees, the decision said. The Office of Consumer Advocate agreed that Midwest Power's use of its existing route was reasonable. "The board has agreed with us on this route," McCarroll said. "It is the best way to go. It does not disturb any additional land." routes to make a complete loop around the city, said spokesman John McCarroll.

The loop, which will carry electricity at the highest voltage used in Iowa, will help increase reliability at power-transforming substations, he said. The loop would allow the company to draw power from alternate substations and better prevent glitches in transmission, McCarroll said. Property Lines Timothy Lynch, Gorsche Family Partnership's lawyer, said the group contends that the loop's route does not follow statutory requirements, even though it will follow an existing lower-voltage route that already crosses the landowners' property. He said the law requires that transmission lines be located near and parallel to railways or along land division lines. Lynch said that although the new route will follow an existing 40-year-old 16 line, it still would not comply with the law, because it cuts across land divisions.

The landowners further object because, they say, the line may be a health risk because of electric and magnetic fields. A Warren County partnership says construction will lower property values and may pose a health threat. By H0LLI HARTMAN Register Business Writer The shortest and seemingly cheapest distance between two points is a straight line. But some Warren County residents aren't too happy with Midwest Power's mathematical logic, because the utility plans to build a high-voltage electricity transmission route across their land. Gorsche Family Partnership, a group of five brothers and sisters, filed a petition in Polk County District Court last month asking a judge to review a March 9 Iowa Utilities Board order that approved the route.

It cuts a straight diagonal across the northwest part of Warren County between connection points in Polk and Madison counties. Midwest Power is building a 34-mile addition to its existing transmission tCountv The Treasury Department sold $12 billion in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 3.06 percent, up from 3 percent last week. Another $12 billion was sold in six-month bills at an average discount rate of 3.19 percent, up from 3.1 percent. The rates were the highest since Jan. 1 1 Stock prices were narrowly mixed, with blue-chip issues boosted by a rise in long-term bond prices and by computerized buy programs.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.95 to 3,507.78. The United Mine Workers ordered 2,200 more miners to join a walkout by 4,000 others. The order expands the strike into a fourth state Pennsylvania. The union is striking over job security. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in July settled at $19.72 per barrel, down 16 cents, at the New York Mercantile Exchange.

i .4 Warren County Existing 345,000 volt line Proposed 345,000 volt line SOURCE: Midwest Power.