The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • 19

Dow Jones industrial, daily close The Orlando Sentinel 4000 I i i i i ii Market listings, B-2 THURSDAY, May 5, 1994 Winning streak ends with concerns over interest rates, B-5. WOoPW 4 1 TnTH 10 25 4 11 18 25 1 15 22 29 FEB. MAR. APRIL World's major banks fry to rescue dollar REUTERS Why did Fed, other banks buy dollars? ANSWER: The value of the dollar, as defined by its worth relative to the Japanese yen and German mark, has been eroding recently in the international market an enormous network of banks, brokers and speculators that buy and sell dollars, marks, yen, British pounds, French francs, Italian lire, etc. This joint purchase of dollars reduced the available supply, increasing their value at least temporarily.

Why did the banks act in concert? The financial ministers of the leading industrialilid nations agreed in 1985 that they would promote global economic harmony partly through the coordinated sale and purchase of each other's currencies to keep them relatively stable. That is considered critical because it eases uncertainty about the future. Please see WHY, B-6 "The monetary authorities of the major countries are joining this morning in concerted intervention," Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said. "These operations reflect our view that recent movements in exchange markets have gone beyond what is justified by economic fundamentals." In plain English, that means that the United Please see DOLLAR, B-6 WASHINGTON The United States enlisted the support of major central banks Wednesday in an all-out bid to rescue the ailing dollar, catching speculators by surprise and driving the U.S. currency higher.

In a well-publicized and coordinated effort, the Federal Reserve and central banks from 15 other nations stepped into the world currency markets to buy dollars. China buys Osceola land for $15 million The 274-acre tract along U.S. Highway 192 adjoins the Florida Splendid China theme park. By Annie Tin OF THE SENTINEL STAFF THE MARKETS Dow Jones industrials 3,697.75, down 16.66 451 .72, down 1.31 MidCap index 173.39, up 0.03 NYSE index 250.75, down 0.61 NASDAQ index 740.31, up 0.93 AMEX index 443.79, up 1.40 Dow Jones bond index 97.97, down 0.15 Gold, Comex close $376.60, up $1.00 Silver, Comex close $5.17, down $0.06 Dollar, Fed index $92.46, up $0.79 Prime rate 6.75 Mortgages, 30-year fixed 7.875-8.875 1-yr. Treasury index as of May 2 4.99 Consumer Price Index, March 147.2 HEALTH CARE IN ANOTHER consolidation in the health-care field, National Health Laboratories Inc.

said Wednesday it will acquire Allied Clinical Laboratories Inc. in a cash deal worth more than $193 million. Under the agreement, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, National Health will offer $23 a share for the 8.4 million shares of Allied Clinical. NEWSPAPERS THE U.S. Justice Department is investigating charges that Detroit's two daily newspapers The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press illegally tried to drive suburban rivals out of business.

The department "is currently investigating whether there is sufficient information to indicate a violation of antitrust laws," Assistant Attorney General Anne Bingaman wrote to Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. SOFTWARE SYSTEME a banking software company based in Casselberry, said Wednesday it has signed an agreement with KENNSCO of Plymouth, in which KENNSCO will take over sales and installation of Systeme's bank branch software systems. The cost-cutting move will eliminate 10 to 12 jobs, or about 30 percent of Systeme's work force. DEFENSE GENERAL DYNAMICS CORP.

said Wednesday it is interested in buying new businesses, selling some business lines or merging with another company as part of an New arrangement shipping flowers with direct line Flowers Direct lets customers have contact with florists where they're sending flowers. By David Altaner FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL KISSDVLMEE The Chinese government has paid a record $15 million to add 274 acres to its land holdings at the Florida Splendid China theme park. The purchase, by a company linked to China Travel Services H.K. the travel conglomerate owned by the communist Chinese government, works out to about $54,700 an acre. "Good God," Osceola Property Appraiser Bob Day said Wednesday.

"That would be the highest price paid per acre on a tract that size in the history of Osceola County." The only land sale in recent history which comes close was for the defunct Little England project in the mid-1970s, which was purchased for an estimated $14,000 an acre, Day said. "You just don't have large tracts like that close to U.S. Highway 192 any more," Day said. Pao Lin Ball, the company's in-house counsel, would not comment Wednesday on plans for the site, but park spokesman Frank Langley said, "It's an absolute sign of Splendid China's commitment to Central Florida." Once dotted with citrus groves, the land is 3 miles west of Interstate 4, adjacent to the 76-acre theme park, which is owned by China Travel. The land also adjoins China Travel's surrounding property, and has about a half-mile of footage along U.S.

Highway 192, according to seller James A. Fowler, the Orlando trustee. "It was an all-cash transaction," said Fowler, Please see CHINA, B-6 FORT LAUDERDALE Mother's Day weekend, this weekend, is the biggest holiday of the year for shipping flowers out of town. Yet at the Boca Raton headquarters of Flowers Direct, which expects more than 100,000 calls about flowers this weekend, there might not even be one flower. Unless somebody sends some to their Mom who works at the office.

"You could almost say Flowers Direct doesn't sell flowers," said Donn Flipse, president of the company. "We sell the service of letting the florist talk directly to the customer." Rather than arranging flowers, most employees at Flowers Direct are working at phones or computers. The company is part of a new generation of flower delivery services. At Flowers Direct, customers order flowers over a toll-free number through a network of about 600 florists. Callers punch in the ZIP code of the area where they want to send flowers, and they are connected to a florist there who fills the order.

For the past few weeks, the company has been offering a special: a card good for a free three-minute MCI phone call with each flower order. Please see FLOWERS, B-6 ongoing restructuring program. The' defense yM PHIL SKINNERFORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL Donn Flipse, president of Flowers Direct, is a 3rd-generation florist in South Florida. giant is considering a number of options, but company officials would not reveal specific plans. The company recently completed the sale of its space launch division to Martin Marietta Corp.

FOOD FINANCIALLY TROUBLED Galaxy Foods Co. Wednesday announced new distribution agreements and plans to launch new products in retail and food service markets. The Orlando-based maker of Formagg brand cheese substitute said it devoted much of its recently acquired working capital to increasing inventory, and said it is on track to reach a target of $25 million in sales for the current fiscal year. Galaxy has not reported sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, but the company has said previously it expects those sales to be in the range of $6 million, compared with $5.3 million in 1993. ACROSS THE STATE SHAREHOLDERS OF Knight-Ridder based in Miami, overwhelmingly re NYNEX joins Viacom to test interactive field REUTERS REITs of the 1990s try to shake image left over from 1 970s By Jack Snyder ft IC1 OF THE SENTINEL STAFF jected a proposal Wednesday that would have limited cigarette advertising in the company's newspapers.

The proposal was put forth at the company's annual meeting by two health FLORIDA NEW YORK A day after it unveiled an alliance with the Newsday newspapers, northeastern regional phone carrier NYNEX Corp. teamed with entertainment giant Viacom Inc. Wednesday to offer interactive media services in the United States and Britain. Terms of the ventures were not disclosed. The companies said they will explore the development of video-on-demand in the northeastern part of the United States, drawing from the extensive libraries of film and television programming controlled by Viacom and its recently acquired Paramount Communications Inc.

The companies also will work together to create interactive versions of Viacom's cable networks, including MTV: Music Television, Nickelodeon and VH-1, they said. In addition, NYNEX and Viacom will explore the development of interactive multiplayer games. Those services would be delivered over the NYNEX Real Estate Investment Trusts got a bad name in the 1970s. Small wonder. Investors lost around $11 billion in just four years after the investment trusts went on a national real estate purchase and development tear.

But the trusts, commonly called REITs, are back in the '90s and a hot item for investors, a trade association executive said Wednesday. That comeback has been achieved despite the lingering hangover of a bad image, said Mark Decker, president of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, based in Washington. It is a comeback sparked by better management and less debt, said Decker, who spoke at a NAREIT regional gathering at the Citrus Club in Orlando. The session care companies that own Knight-Ridder stock. Catholic Health Care West and Mercy HealthServices complained that cigarette advertising encourages children to smoke.

Knight-Ridder owns some of the nation's largest newspapers, including The Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer. GEORGE SKENESENTINEL Compiled from staff and wire reports Mark Decker says Real Estate Investment Trusts are Please see REITS, B-6 ram SSNBSBSSU Please see VIACOM, B-6 better managed than they were 2 decades ago. Convention business boosted local economy by $1 .3 billion last year TOYS US ISN'T getting too much of a jump on Walt Disney theme parks in ig news and numbers from the Or laridoOrange County Convention Visitors Bureau: selling merchandise from The Lion King before the movie's premiere next month. Disney officials said the parks last week started putting out small displays of Simba Leslie Doolittle Blazing Pianos, which doesn't open until June, won best exotic drink for the Great Ball O' Fire, a secret Tabasco-laced concoction. The most controversial award of the night, however, went to the Delta Orlando Resort for best decorated booth.

Crepe paper didn't stand a chance against the beaming, buxom bikini-clad servers in the Delta's tropical-themed booth. Said a laughing general manager Richard Maxfield shortly after accepting the award: "You gotta do what you gotta do." A note to grumbling sore losers: Max-field said he didn't bring in ringers for the competition. The women in the booth were hotel employees wearing the "uniforms" they typically serve in at The Water's Edge Bar and Grill. To contribute tourism news, call (407) 420-5720. one night more than the national average.

Also, a study by the International Association of Convention Visitors Bureaus shows the average "value" of a meeting delegate is $878 per stay, and the average trade show delegate's is $1,025. That "value" represents what the delegate spends locally and what the meeting organization spends on them. ORANGE COUNTY'S TOURIST development tax bonds received an A rating from Standard and Poor's for the first time, while maintaining its A rating from both Fitch and Moody's investor services. County officials say that makes it the only A rated tourism tax agency in the country that isn't backed up by some other revenue source. "Getting that high a rating from all three agencies shows Wall Street has confidence in Central Florida, in our tourism base and in our convention center man- Slmba ON TOURISM According to the latest bureau stats, local convention business in 1993 pumped $1.3 billion into the local economy 18 percent more than it did in 1992.

The bureau says Orlando was host to 12,796 meetings and trade shows in 1993 a 28 percent increase over 1992. The delegate count was logged at 1.4 million 2 percent more than 1992. "We're seeing somewhat of a resurgence in corporate meetings," now that the economy is recovering, bureau spokesman Joe Mittiga said. "We and others have also been marketing Orlando very strongly as a premier destination for meetings and trade shows." The economic impact numbers are based on surveys that show delegates stj in Orlando an average of five nighty merchandise in response to guest requests. Larger displays including new and unique items will be introduced in weeks to come.

FLORIDA BAY GRILL won Best Food and Most Productive Booth at the Central Florida Hotel and Motel Association's Bacchus Bash festival last Friday. 7 agement," said County Chairman Linda Chapin. Higher bond ratings give investors a greater level of sWUrity, which makes them willing to accept less return on their money which saves the county money on interest payments. i 1.