Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 42

10D DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE. ROCHESTER, N.Y.. WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 4. 1985 nn noriEY hariiet rates This week's money market account interest rates offered at area institutions are listed on 9D.

Democrat (ftronirk dLP UAUTED LOCAL STOCKS 1M4-5 Index base. 1967100 125 115 105 United States More jobs advertised Associated Press, Democrat and Chronicle Business The volume of U.S. help-wanted newspaper advertisements rose in October to its highest level since midsummer, reflecting an improvement in the labor market, the Conference Board reported. In the Rochester area, ad volume also increased for the month. The U.S.

help-wanted advertising index rose to 140, a 3.2 percent increase from September and from October 1984. Rochester's index rose 3.8 percent from September to 82 in October, and was 10.8 percent above the year-ago level "The rise in want-ad volume in October brings the help-wanted index back to the level reached in July," Confer- ence Board economist Kenneth Goldstein said. The recov- ery "is a positive signal of improvement in labor market conditions," he said. The survey, which takes 1967 as its base year, measures classified advertising volume in 51 major U.S. newspapers.

Want-ad volume rose most sharply in New England, with an 11.7 percent gain, and the Alabama-Kentucky-Tennes- see area, with an 8.1 percent increase. The Mid-Atlantic region, which includes New York, gained 3.2 percent 95 65 1 Trading settles down Associated Press Stock prices steadied yesterday after falling in thepre-vious session, fluctuating within a narrow range before rising slightly in the final hour. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials rose 1.15 points to close at 1,459.06. Analysts and traders said bargain hunters who bought stocks yesterday were responsible for halting the decline. Many analysts predict the Dow will resume ha climb after a breather and surpass the 1,500 level around the end of the year.

"If the bears really wanted to jump on the case, they could have done it today," said Jack Baker, head of block trading for Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc. "There was no follow-through from yesterday's downside action (selling), which I think was fairly optimistic." Baker said it seemed sellers were running into resistance around the 1,450 level of the Dow industrials. But Charles Jensen, a technical analyst for MKI Securities, said he thought the Dow industrials might dip to 1,420 or 1,430 before resuming a march that would take the average above 1,500 around the end of the year. Texaco was dor- 75 cents to $31 as the most active issue on the IYSE. A Texas state judge is scheduled to decide tomorrow on a jury's verdict that Texaco should pay Pennzoil more than $10.5 billion in damages in connection with Texaco's 1984 acquisition of Getty Oil Pennzoil was up $3.25 to $66.50.

High Low in 100a High Low CIom Chg 66 46' American Can 521 61 61'- 61' 40' 24V AMOC.DryGoodt 298 38 37 37 24 BaMchtLomb 1290 29 29 29 68 52 Burroughs 803 58 58 58 54 27 CanandMgutWiiw 65 54 53 53 18 12' Champion Prod. 43 18 18 -18 51 35 Citicorp 3461 46 46 46- 84 59 Coca-Cola 3099 83 82 82 4 65 50 CoW 68 63 62 63 13 4 Computer COMoiM 246 7 '7 7- 31 23 Curtico-Buma 69 25 25 25 64 46 OuPont 1183 62 62 62 SO 41 Eattman Kodak 4239 48 48 48- 13 8 ftft -206 8 8 8 66 44 Gannett 2674 58 57 57 85 64 General Motors 5515 71 70 71 53 37 General Signal 597 43 43 43 17 11 Gleaeon 13 16 16 16 -l- 16 6 Graham 18 7 7 7 35 22 Harris 1035 27 26 27 39 24 Hartmari 312 35 35 35 66 73 Minn. MiningMfg 2868 84 83 64 4- 34 25 Mobil 5625 31 30 30 41 34 PennwaK 58 39 39 39 24 18 (HUE 361 23 22 23 41 34 Rochester Tsl 242 38 38 38 39 30 Sears 7126 37 36 37 22 16 Sybron 72 20 20 20 12 7 Voplei 21 9 9 9 60 35 Xerox 2281 58 58 58 55 Rochester i i i i i I i i i i I ONDJ FMAMJJASO Source ot data Conference Board Democrat and Chronicle Gold price, New York $322.50 30 cents Wilshira value of 5,000 stocks $2,065,561 billion $2,686 billion Dow Jones Industrials 1.459.06 dk 1.15 points Federal funds rate, at close 8.25 percent 0.375 points Prime interest rate 9.5 percent unchanged 52 week high: 52 week low; ex-dividend Black Decker plant buyers get first bond ok has not been determined." Reali and Onken estimated that the plant's payroll, listed on their application as $15.5 million a year, would drop to $14.9 million in the fust year under new ownership. Local ownership could reduce the plant's expenses in other ways, according to industry analysts and consultants. It would eliminate the plant's payments for Black Decker's corporate overhead and debt In addition, local owners could use more of the plant's manufacturing capacity, which recently has been at only 40 percent Reali and Onken hope to obtain a commitment from Black Decker to buy, for at least two years, the electric can openers, knives and other small appliances made at Brockport Such an agreement would provide an estimated 75 percent of the plant's sales initially, they said.

Meanwhile, they hope to expand into subassembly and components manufacturing on a contract basis with industry and government. Frank Lamb, Finger Lakes regional director of the New York State Department of Commerce, said the state is trying to procure contracts for the potential new owners. Counting in their favor is the plant's flexibility. The facility can take raw material and turn it into a variety of finished products, without depending heavily on outside machine shops and other subassemblers. Although built 39 years ago for cold storage, the plant was expanded numerous times by General Electric and Black Decker, which bought the GE small-appliances division in 1983.

The plant is fully integrated and highly mechanized to make an array of products," said Horace W. Becker, a consultant to the plant for State University College at Brockport. Another key asset is the workforce, which has long experience with the equipment and manufacturing process, said Becker, a retired Xerox Corp. vice president. Black Decker's incentive to sign a two-year contract might be getting the same products from a known supplier at reduced cost, said John E.

Stofier, vice president for college relations at SUNY-Brockport. "American manufacturers have had their chance to go to suppliers overseas, and know there are disadvantages," said Stoller, who is also a consultant to the plant "They get cheap labor, but a lack of flexibility." Brockport factory's managers seek loan to keep it open By John Campbell Democrat and Chronicle Business The managers of Black Decker small-appliance manufacturing plant in Brockport received the first approval for up to $9.5 million in low-interest bonds to buy and rehabilitate the plant The County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) voted unanimously yesterday to issue bonds to Industries a local management group that has been negotiating for two months with Black Decker and government officials. Louis E. Reali, manager of the Brockport plant and John D. Onken, comptroller, said they're within several weeks of reaching an agreement with Black Decker.

The company announced last month it intends to close the plant by September 1986 as part of a major restructuring to reduce excess manufacturing capacity worldwide. That announcement endangering 600 jobs, dealt another blow to the village of Brockport, where a year ago Owens-Illinois Inc. said it was closing its glass container manufacturing plant eliminating 471 jobs. No one has bought the Owens-Illinois plant and many of the former workers there remain unemployed. The bond application must also be approved by the Monroe County Legislature, possibly within several weeks or months.

Reali and Onken said they are negotiating with Chase Lincoln First Bank to buy the bonds, and to provide a $2.5 million loan for working capital. Neither would speculate on the total cost of the project. They told COMIDA that if the buyout is successful, they intend to retain roughly 600 jobs, and possibly add more by hiring a sales and marketing staff. Workers probably would take cuts in pay and benefits, Onken said. Black Decker has paid its workers relatively high wages as much as Eastman Kodak Co.

employees. Reali added that a profit-sharing plan could offset cuts in the wage package, but that details have not been worked out "We plan to have comparable wages and benefits." he said. "How that's broken up Toyota chooses Kentucky for auto assembly plant If If (Tl a news conference yesterday to confirm the reports. "I do not make announcements about sites," Collins said. "I'm still working and talking with them (Toyota officials) about their needs." Jerry Giaquinta, a spokesman for the subsidiary Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc.

in Torrance, said he would neither confirm nor deny the reports. In July, Toyota announced it would follow the lead of four smaller Japanese competitors Nissan Motor Co. Honda Motor Co. Mazda Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

and build a U.S. auto assembly plant Nearly three dozen sites across the nation were proposed, Toyota officials said earlier. The plant will complement one that Toyota operates in Fremont, in a joint venture with General Motors Corp. The jointly owned company has been making cars for nearly a year. Associated Press DETROIT Toyota Motor Japan's leading automaker, has tentatively chosen farmland near tiny Georgetown, as the site of a $500 million auto assembly plant, sources said yesterday.

Toyota plans to make an official announcement Dec. 11 in Kentucky, said the company sources, who spoke on condition that they not be identified by name. Georgetown, population 10,000, is about 60 miles south of Cincinnati in Kentucky's horse country. The Nashville Tennessean newspaper, quoting an unidentified source, also re-ported yesterday that Toyota had chosen Georgetown and it was "highly unlikely" that the company would change the decision. Kentucky Gov.

Martha Layne Collins, who has personally directed the state's campaign for the Toyota plant, refused at Ruling due Jan. 6 on instant photos A decision is likely by Jan. 6 from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on whether to stay an injunction that in effect bars FastTm" Kodak Co. from the instant photography business, court officials said yesterday.

Kodak is appealing a District Court verdict that it infringed on instant photography patents of Polaroid Corp and has asked that an injunction barring Kodak from making or selling instant photo products be stayed until the appeal is decided. Otherwise, the injunction goes into effect Jan. 10. Kodak officials have said that if it does, the company won't return to the instant photography business no matter what the outcome of the appeal The Court of Appeals in an order, meanwhile, said Kodak's brief in the appeal is due by Dec. 13, Polaroid's brief is due by Dec.

27 and Kodak's reply brief is due by Dec. 31. The Court of Appeals also denied Kodak permission to file extended briefs. Kodak spokesman Charles S. Smith said Kodak is pleased the Court of Appeals is moving so quickly in the case.

Both the appeal itself and Kodak's request to stay the injunction will be decided by the same panel of judges. Briefly The government's index of leading indicators rose 0.3 per cent in October, its sixth monthly advance in a row, the Commerce Department reported yesterday. Commerce Secretary Malcolm Bal-dnge called the moderate rise a signal that the economic expansion would stretch into 1986. The index, which gauges future economic activity, had gained 0.4 per cent in September and 0.8 per cent in August Private economists echoed Baldrige's view but said the outlook was for weak growth with little chance of a surge in economic activity. Sales of new homes fell for the third consecutive month in October, with the 5.5 percent decline the sharpest since last April, the government reported yesterday.

New single-family homes were sold at an annual rate of 652,000 units in October, compared to a rate of 690,000 units in September. The decline, the steepest since a 7.2 percent fall in April, followed drops of 4.9 percent in August and 3 percent in September. Salaries and bonuses for the nation's commercial banking executives increased 14 percent in 1984, more than for executives in other industries, the Conference Board reported yesterday. The Baltimore News American, one of the nation's few surviving afternoon newspapers, is up for sale, the Hearst Corp. has announced.

The daily, founded in 1773, has been losing money for several years as it battles for readers against the larger Evening Sun which has a circulation of 150,000. CBS Inc. said yesterday that it has sold Holt General Book, a unit of the CBS Educational and Professional Publishing Division, to a prominent West German publisher. Terms of the sale to Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH of Stuttgart were not disclosed. Mary Kay Cosmetics Inc.

announced yesterday that its shareholders have approved a merger agreement taking the company private. In a meeting that lasted only 15 minutes, company founder Mary Kay Ash received approval of the leveraged buyout agreement that provides for acquisition of the company by an investor group headed by her and her son, Richard R. Rogers. Pennwalt Corp. said it has agreed to buy Purex Industries' Turco-Purex Industrial Division, the world's largest manufacturer of aircraft maintenance chemicals and cleaners.

Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Moscom Corp. said it acquired the Computerized Fleet Maintenance software package from Thomas W. Solarek. The software is designed to troubleshoot management and maintenance of truck, bus and auto fleets.

Moscom is a maker of computers for the telecommunications and transportation industries. Bond prices rose. Silver price: Handy Harman, $6,080 per troy ounce; New York Commodity Exchange, $6,059 per troy ounce. Computed from reports by Democrat and Chronicle. Reuters.

Associated Press Dannie FIom Democrat and Chronicle Almost ready to boil Workers installing one of two temporary boilers for the Rochester District Heating Cooperative, which will begin providing steam heat to 45 members in about two weeks. RDH is taking over the steam system from Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. The temporary boilers on Lawn Street will provide heat for about a year, until RDH completes its permanent boiler plant. Fed official proposes an accreditation system for banks had met with some skepticism from bankers and other federal offcials, also called for the drafting of a "code of ethics" for banks. He said the move would help reverse "the erosion of confidence in our whole banking system" brought on by the spate of recent failures and near-failures including problems faced by savings and loan institutions in Maryland and Ohio and last year's $4.5 billion federal bailout Associated Press WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman Preston Martin yesterday proposed an industry accreditation system for banks and bankers, and said "surveillance boards" should be formed to detect potential bank failures.

He said prestigious retired bankers and certified public accountants should be recruited to serve on these panels. Martin, while conceding his proposals of Continental National Bank of Illinois. Martin said the banking industry needs to do much better at policing itself. He said there were limits to what the Federal Reserve, which oversees the nation's major banks, and other federal regulatory agencies could accomplish. "Today's higher-risk financial system requires new approaches, by examiners, by management and by the industry," Martin told a seminar on banking practices.

"We need better supervison. Deregulation did not mean de-supervision if there is such a word. And better supervision does not mean entirely governmental supervison," Martin said. The federal bank regulator also called for increasing the number of bank examiners and for various new industry panels. Avon's talks on selling a division may precede a leveraged buyout ROBERT r.lETZ gets an outside company to pay $600 million for Mallinckrodt, Avon will have enough to pay shareholders without paying anything out of their own pockets.

This scenario should be viewed in the context of Avon's prospects. The management team at Avon was brought in to make the business more profitable in a short period of time. They had done this in other businesses. A number of the executives were with Heublein before R.J. Reynolds bought it But a turnaround hasn't worked this time.

And it doesn't look like it will soon. In mid-year, Avon was expected to earn $2.15 a share, about the same as the $2.16 a share it earned in 1984. That's a long way from the profit peak of $4.17 a share in 1979, when the dividend was $3.00 a share. Profits have come down steadily and so has the dividend, first to $2.50 a share in 1982 and then, in 1983, to $2.00 a share, where it remains today. Avon is now expected to earn $1.65 a share in 1985 35 cents less than the dividend.

A leveraged buyout would eliminate the need for asset-draining dividends. And an LBO would reward shareholders, save face for management and avoid shareholder suits. The cards now seem stacked in favor of a leveraged buyout. Robert Metz is New York bureau chief of Financial News Network. Write to him care of United Feature Syndicate, 200 Park New York, N.Y.

10017. Some on Wall Street are guessing that management of Avon Products, the door-to-door cosmetics company, is selling its Mallinckrodt division to pave the way for an Avon leveraged buyout. Caution: This doesn't mean an LBO will bring rich rewards to holders, since the stock has already climbed to 28 from a low of 21 in July. Avon, based in New York, reportedly is negotiating with several potential Mallinckrodt buyers. There is irony in the high level of interest.

Avon may just gain a price in the neighborhood of what it paid for Mallinckrodt in 1982. Avon paid heavily for the specialty chemicals and health-care company because of its strong desire to branch out from its mature base in door-to-door cosmetics. A decade ago, after a generation of rapid growth, cosmetics slowed and never regained momentum. Avon was especially eager for a foothold in high-growth hospital supplies, and Mallinckrodt was a major factor there. So Avon paid $712 million, a high price relative to assets then valued at $309 million.

It's true that the worth of a thing is what it will bring. But Avon might have struck a better bargain. The price was regarded as unusually high even then. Wall Street felt Mallinckrodt was probably worth $500 million. As recently as four months ago, Avon management said specialty chemicals and health care were the route to growth.

The planned sale of Mallinckrodt appears to acknowledge a change in that position. Since the acquisition, Mallinckrodt's assets have increased to an indicated $350 million. Even so, in a buyers' market for Mallinckrodt, Avon might be expected to realize only $550 million or so. But with formal offers for Mallinckrodt outstanding, Avon might induce spirited bidding and thus get more than the $600 million Mallinckrodt is believed to be worth fully priced. Avon might realize $650 million or even more.

Once Mallinckrodt is sold, the question is whether Avon will continue restructuring. Many believe it will. But if that's the plan, Avon might well have launched a share buy-back plan when the stock was cheaper. Wall Street urged Avon to buy some of its own stock as far back as two years ago. With the stock as pricey as it is today, some lean to the LBO theory.

Avon's current market value is about $2.2 billion on its nearly 80 million shares outstanding. If one assumes an LBO price of 35 a share a seven point premium the difference is $560 million. If Avon.