The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 85

FLORIDA The Orlando Sentinel Complete stock market listings, C-4 Tuesday, January 15, 1985 Dow Jones average 30 industrials 1,140 iTTTl iTu ifiTT fTTO TFTTt TnV 0 to 10.5 prime raS Big bank cuts COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS major banks in recent days have reported increases ranging from 9 percent to 33 percent in fourth-quarter profit. Piatt said banks had been so slow about reducing their prime rates that he was not sure others would match Manufacturers Hanover's cut. But another economic analyst, Maria F. Ramirez of Drexel Burnham Lambert, said, "It will be a matter of days before other banks will match it." The latest reduction follows a steady decline in money-market interest rates, which determine how much banks must pay to borrow funds for lending. The prime rate is the base upon which banks compute interest charges on short-term business loans.

Their most credit-worthy customers frequently pay less than prime, while smaller businesses typically pay more. It is the lowest prime rate for a major money-center bank since a 10.5 percent level prevailed for about five months in 1983. The last time the prime was below 10.5 percent was October 1978. "My sense is that the downward movement in the whole interest rate structure is not over yet," said Eric Heinemann, a money-market analyst who heads a company bearing his name. "Interest rates may bottom out and go up later this year, but on balance they will average lower in 1985 than last year." Elliott Piatt, a senior vice president at the investment company of Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette Securities said that "cuts in the prime have been long justified based on banks' cost of funds." "They have been delaying prime rate cuts to protect their profit margins," Piatt said.

Indeed, four NEW YORK One of the nation's biggest banks, Manufacturers Hanover Trust reduced its prime lending rate Monday by one-quarter of a percentage point to 10.5 percent, effective today. Several economists said they expect the move to spread throughout the industry, with further reductions down the line. Manufacturers Hanover, the first major bank to lower its prime to 10.5 percent, made the move Monday afternoon in response to a sharp drop in its cost for money. The new rate "more accurately reflects our current lower cost of funds," said John Meyers, a spokesman for the nation's fourth-largest bank. nrrn Tourist tally Counting Florida's auto visitors THE MARKETS Dow Jones average 1,234.54, up 16.45 NYSE Index 98.38, up 1.40 AMEX Index 207.49, up 1.75 OTC Index 255.46, up 3.30 Dow Jones bonds 72.53, up 0.01 Prime rate 10.75 Discount rate 8.0 Fixed mortgage rates 1 2.5-1 3.5 Closing gold price, Comex $302.90 Closing silver price, Comex $6,016 Consumer Price Index 315.3 1-yr Treasury index as of 111 9.04 Unadjusted WALL STREET STILL CLIMBING.

Stock prices swept ahead Monday as the rally that began last week kept (Tolling. Gains of a point or more were widespread among blue-chip issues. Dow Jones industrial average: Up 16.45 to 1,234.54, its highest close since 1,244.15 on Election Day. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange: 124.88 million shares vs. 107.59 million Friday.

JAPAN RECORD YEAR. Japan's 1984 trade surplus rose sharply to a record $33.68 billion, including a surplus of $33.11 billion with the United States, the country's Finance Ministry reported Monday. Exports: Up 15.8 percent from 1983 to $170.13 billion. Imports: Up 8 percent to $136.45 billion. Sharpest growth: In exports of communications equipment, semiconductors, business machinery, autos and videocassette recorders all helped by a recovering U.S.

economy. In trade with the United States, Japan exported $59.94 billion worth of goods while importing $26.83 billion worth. TREASURY BILLS RATES MIXED. Yields on short-term securities were mixed in Monday's auctions, with Better count of tourists lowers total '84 numbers may show fewer arriving by auto By Vicki Vaughan TT A s) Windsor resigns as SFN chief New Channel 9 owner moves broadcast arm By Julia Reed OF THE SENTINEL STAFF a New method Previous method OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Cars counted, not passengers Passengers counted Surveys taken only on Surveys taken on all roads major highways into state leading into state Surveys taken Surveys taken weekdays, Monday-Friday only weekends, holidays Surveys taken at midday Surveys taken at half-hour intervals, over a 4-hour period TT 24hoursadav Source Florida Department ol Commerce When the state Commerce Department finally announces how many tourists visited Florida during 1984, the number probably will fall far short of the 38.9 million visitors recorded in 1983. A new, more sophisticated method of counting visitors who enter the state by automobile is expected to show that the annual total of such tourists is 20 percent T-bill yields 10.601 Walter Windsor will retire Feb.

1 as chairman of SFN Communications Inc. of Orlando. Windsor, 66, took the position in July 1984 after an Illinois company bought Orlando's WFTV-Channel 9, where he had been station manager since 1969. He described his leaving Monday as a "mutual" decision between himself and SFN Cos. of Glenview, 111., parent company of SFN Communications.

Windsor's departure also means that Orlando no longer will be the headquarters of SFN's domestic broadcast operations, SFN Communications. Sherman Wildman, 44, president of SFN Communications Inc. and former director of program and sales development for CBS Broadcast International, will take over as chairman. Previously, Wildman had been responsible only for the company's Puerto Ri-can operations, which he will continue to oversee. In addition to Channel 9, SFN owns two Georgia TV stations, three Montana radio stations, and a TV station and interest rates on three-month bills declining and rates on six-month bills edging up slightly.

The Treasury Department sold $14 billion in securities: Half in three-month bills at an average discount rate of 7.74 percent, down from 7.78 percent last week; and half in six-month ma. t-morrtfi billi 3-montti bills I 3 To DEC. 17 28 7 14 JAN. to 25 percent less than previously thought, according to Leonard Elzie, chief of the department's bureau of business assistance. The results of the new counting method, not yet released, presumably mean that Florida is not getting 21.8 million visitors by car each year as had been estimated.

Assuming that the number of visitors arriving by plane remained the same, the overall tourist count for 1984 may total only 30.7 million. "The new method comes up with numbers that are lower," Elzie said. Last year, as director of the bureau of economic analysis, Elzie supervised the new visitor-by-auto counts using a method developed by Douglas Zahn, a professor at Florida State University. The new method first was used during the first quarter of 1984, but the to- Gov. Bob Graham's office.

"The new method says we've been off the mark in the number of tourists, but changing the number of tourists wouldn't necessarily change the amount" of revenue collected, Johnson said. "We aren't worried about a shortfall." Tourists contribute as much as 15 percent of Florida's general revenue, which includes the state's sales tax and its levies on beverages, cigarettes and motor fuel, Johnson said. The Legislature requested the new method of monitoring auto visitors because it wanted more accurate tourist counts, according to Jim Zingale, legislative research director for the division Please see COUNT, C-2 tals for the new and old methods differed by only 2.7 percent during those three months. The subsequent drop in the new method's tourist count does not mean fewer people are visiting the state but that Florida now has a more accurate method of counting them, Elzie said. The Zahn method differs from previous systems for counting auto visitors in that most local traffic from Georgia and Alabama has been eliminated from the tabulation.

Also, the counting is done on every road leading into the state, not just on major highways, as had been the case previously. If the new method shows that Florida is getting fewer tourists than had been believed, it is not cause for alarm, said Pam Johnson, senior economist with Pound falls further despite salvage effort COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS ernment's resolve to maintain sound monetary conditions." The fall of sterling turned into a rout last week when the government signaled that it would leave As 1 film production company in Puerto Rico. Although Wildman technically was under Windsor, he reported directly to SFN Cos. chairman John R. Purcell, as did Windsor.

Windsor will serve as a consultant to SFN Communications eight days a month for the next two years. He said he also will become more active in his role as consultant to Comco Inc. of Florida, a radio station ownership group in which he is a stockholder and director. Asked why he retired only six months after accepting the chairmanship of the new broadcast group, Windsor said, "It was sentially a transition period, and I agreed with the SFN people that my presence was necessary." He also said that the radio Please see WINDSOR, C-2 the Dound to the Lawson to plummet toward parity with the dollar, closing in London at $1.1105, yet another all-time low and a drop of about 4 cents in one week. In markets in the Far East, the pound fell even further to $1.1030.

Later in New York, sterling slipped to $1.1125 against $1.1190 late Friday. Already, Britain's interest rates have risen 2.5 percentage points in two working days. They stood at 9.5 percent as recently as Thursday. Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, Britain's equivalent of treasury secretary, faced a derisive attack by the opposition Labor Party in the House of Commons. Lawson responded that the increase in interest rates "demonstrates the gov- LONDON The British government Monday intervened for the first time in four years to raise interest rates by 1.5 percentage points to halt the dramatic slump in the value of the pound.

However, the move failed to stop sterling's slide to a record low against dollar. The Bank of England intervened to guide free-market money rates, raising its minimum lending rate from 10.5 percent to 12 percent. High Street banks immediately followed suit. The central bank has had no formal minimum lending rate since August 1981. After the move, the pound continued bills at an average discount rate of 8.05 percent, up from 8.02 percent last week.

Actual return: 8 percent for three-month bills, 8.51 percent for six-month. NORTHEASTERN INTERNATIONAL SLOWLY REBUILDING. Northeastern International Airways added a stop in Philadelphia on Monday to its one daily round-trip flight between Fort Lauderdale and Islip, N.Y. "We hope to add some flights, but I can't indicate now that it would happen this week," said Wally Knief, spokesman at the airline's headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. A few days after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan.

8, Northeastern reduced its operations to one round-trip flight per day. The airline still has its Orlando station manager on the payroll, Knief said. Some former employees in Orlando will be rehired when the airline re-establishes Orlando as a destination, he said. FLORIDA NATIONAL BANKS YEAR-END RESULTS. Florida National Banks of Florida Inc.

reported record profit in 1984 of $42.6 million, or $3.31 per share, compared with $40.1 million, or $3.52 per share, in 1983. The 1983 figure included a $10.5 million profit on the sale-leaseback of its downtown Jacksonville headquarters building in October of that year. Fourth-quarter profit in 1984 fell to $11.8 million, or 91 cents per share, compared with $19.3 million, or $1.50 per share, in the same 1983 period, when the building was sold. Combined assets of FNB as of Dec. 31: $5.36 billion vs.

$3.3 billion in 1983. CERTIFIED FINANCIAL SERVICES PURCHASE. Certified Financial Services Inc. of Altamonte Springs has bought 795 acres of citrus groves for $4.5 million, the company said Monday. Location of the property: DeSoto and Charlotte counties.

The seller: American Agronomics Corp. of Tampa. CFS chairman and chief executive officer George Noga said the purchase brings the citrus acreage owned by CFS and its affiliates to more than 4,000 acres. Total managed by CFS: More than 5,000 acres. AROUND THE STATE THE SECURITIES and Exchange Commission has barred Fort Lauderdale investment counselor Kevin M.

Malloy from working for any investment firm for five years. Malloy consented to the court's order without admitting or denying mercy of market forces. However, finance officials changed their minds at a weekend meeting. "The plain fact is that this government is concerned about the exchange rate," Lawson said. He said the pound was depressed by the slump in oil prices, which meant less revejiue from Britain's export of North Sea crude; and the strength of the U.S.

dollar against all hard currencies. New IRS rules complicate the art of using company cars 1 outhern Bell's cars and trucks in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina logged 12.9 million miles last month, which formulas; 2.9 percent will lower personal-use charge-backs; 36.3 percent will make no changes; and 9.8 percent will do a variety of "other" things. (The total comes to more than 100 percent because some respondents gave more than one answer.) While the new rules are creating a certain amount of bedlam, final rules have not yet been spelled out, nor have all the ramifications been explored. If Runzheimer is correct in its interpretation of the law, car-leasing companies also could be affected. According to Runzheimer, neither leasing companies nor credit providers will be allowed to take investment tax credits unless they obtain signed affidavits from the users stating that the vehicles are used for business more than half the time.

Robert Stebbins, leasing manager for Braun Cadillac in Orlando, said the leasing industry does not interpret the law that way. Stebbins feels that it is not the intent of the IRS to Hn riamacrp to the leasing business but to elimi Dick Marlowe BUSINESS SEC allegations that clients of his firms lost more than million. Malloy operated Mai no doubt qualifies it as one of the companies affected most drastically by new U.S. tax rules dealing with company cars. While some companies, including Sun Banks already have turned in fleets rather than deal with massive amounts of paperwork, Southern Bell has decided to cope with the new rules by improving its record-keeping methods to track the business and personal use of company-owned cars.

It will be quite a chore. Southern Bell has 15,961 vehicles of which 3,573 are passenger cars. Now that the Tax Reform Act of 1984 is in effect, the Internal Revenue Service has vowed to eliminate some of the abuses in the personal use of business cars as an untaxed benefit. Thousands of companies around the nation are deciding what to do about it. According to a survey by Runzheimer International, a Rochester, company that specializes in travel and living costs, most companies will confront the new rules by doing exactly what Southern Bell is doing: improving record-keeping methods.

Larry Strickler, Southern Bell spokesman in Orlando, said the company already has placed forms in all its vehicles so that drivers can log every mile accurately. "We are trying to look at it positively," Strickler said with a chuckle. "If we can get through a divestiture, we can also deal with this." According to Runsheimer's Peter Packer, "That's what the IRS is looking for." loy on Market Inc. and Kevin Molloy Enterprises Florsheim Shoe Co. today opens its first computerized shoe store in Florida.

Loca tion: Galleria Mall in Fort LauQerdale. How it Fpr those thinking they can dodge the new rules, however, Packer said such a decision would be unwise. Packer said he is fielding dozens of calls every day from corporate fleet managers who are trying to find out whether they are in compliance and if not, "what they need to do to get their house in order." Although the IRS has not yet fully defined all the new rules, Packer does not doubt that the agency intends to get tough. A survey just completed by Runzheimer indicates that only 2.9 percent of respondents plan to change their type of fleet ownership. Another 20.9 percent will raise personal-use charge-backs; 12.2 percent will put a cap on the cost of executive fleet cars; 11.1 percent will buy smaller cars for executives; 10.6 percent will modify personal-use charge-back nate abuses in which business cars are used for personal matters without proper reporting.

Braun Cadillac already has come up with a log that will enable users to keep bona fide travel records, Stebbins said, and "leases have not dropped off." While the new rules may halt the leasing of some really high-priced luxury imports, Stebbins said, executives still will be able to lease Cadillacs and stay within the rules. But the real effect of the change cannot be assessed, he agreed, until the IRS hands down its own interpretation and spells out the ramifications of its own regulations. works: Customers can view the company's full line of 250 styles of men's shoes by computer and order a pair in any size or width. The shoes are delivered by mail. Compiled by Ned Popkins.