The Miami News from Miami, Florida • 13

The Miami News Wometco proceeds as if sale assured MERWIN MALE Miami Haws Basilian Editor Friday. September 23, 1983 I i 1 i 0 8A The Miami News LI 114 Friday. September 23, 1983 I 1: Wometco proceeds if sale MERWIN MALE Miami Nowa Businass Editor I i It 1 1 1 Long-distance information charge planned by When the American Telephone Telegraph Co. announces details next month of its proposed reduction in long-distance telephone rates, it also will propose a 75-cent charge for each long-distance directory assistance call, company sources say. The charge will be necessary, officials say, because the Bell System operating companies can't provide any type of free service to after the company is broken up Jan.

1. also does not want to be put at a disadvantage with its long-distance competitors, they said. Phone users today do not pay any charge for dialing information in a distant city. announced Wednesday that it was proposing a 51.75-billion reduction in interstate long-distance rates, the largest such single cut in Long-distance information charge planned by lAtkosos A 0 rINOMETCO ENTERPRISES INC .40 IhiVOIMEICO'' ENTERPRISES INC. p.

Wometco's vice president of public affairs. Whaley said the Wednesday night announcement of the deal made yesterday a busy day. He reported "non-stop calls from brokers and analysts and stockholders." "Up to now, the question was how much," said Whaley. "Now the biggest question is when, and I think this is a very natural We think the deal Is going to take four to six months." He said the "biggest imponderable" is the TV-license transfers, which require approval by the Federal Communications Commission. Kohlberg Kravis already qualified for one license for KTLA in Los Angeles, which one of its companies acquired last spring from Golden West Broadcasters.

Whaley said Intensive negotiations 'will be held to follow up the agreement in principle. "It's a very thin bunch of papers, and the final agreement will be a very thick bunch of papers," he said. Then the pact would go to Wometco's board of directors. Finally, he said, Wometco's stockholders would vote "but not before the FCC approves of the transfer of the licenses." Wometco's shares were traded in record volume yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. They closed at $43, up 50 cents from Wednesday's closing price before the agreement was announced.

Changing hands were 256,900 shares. Whaley said the previous record of 224,100 shares was set last Jan. 31, the first trading day after Wometco chairman Mitchell Wolfson died. Besides its television stations, Wometco is involved in cable television, Coca-Cola bottling, automatic vending, movie theaters and other entertainment, including the Miami Seaquarium. Wometco's vice president of public affairs.

Whaley said the Wednesday night announcement of the deal made yesterday a busy day. He reported "non-stop calls from brokers and analysts and stock- It was a day unlike all other days at the downtown Miami headquarters of Wometco Enterprises Inc. Telephones rang constantly. Employes scurried to meetings where they might glean insights into the company's future and theirs. Word came that Wometco's stock had its heaviest trading day ever.

What made yesterday different was that Wometco, built and nurtured by Mitchell Wolfson for 58 years until his death last January, was being sold. And the prospective buyer, although well-known on Wall Street, hardly evoked instant name recognition on North Miami Avenue. The New York investment firm of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts a master of the so-called leveraged buyout, had agreed in principle to acquire Wometco for $842 million in cash and assume its long-term debt of $174.7 million. The package topped $1 billion. Wometco's stockholders would get $46.50 per share.

Hurdles remain negotiating a definitive or final agreement, gaining stockholders' approval and obtaining federal clearance to transfer the licenses of Wometco's six television stations, including WTVJ (Channel 4) in Miami. There also is uncertainty about whether a competing bid for Wometco's 18.1-million shares will surface. But Wometco officials proceeded yesterday as if the outcome were assured. They introduced Henry Kravis, a partner in the New York firm, at a meeting of Wometco's management. Then some of the managers called meetings of employes to explain the transition.

Finally, the company sent letters to the homes of all It was a day unlike all other days at the downtown Miami headquarters of Wometco Enterprises Inc 1 employes, about 1,000 of them in South Florida. In each instance, the message was meant to be reassuring: Kohlberg Kravis doesn't run companies; it buys them and lets them carry on essentially as before. The main theme of the letter to employes is that the bossto-be "is not an operating company and they require good management," according to Gerald F. Whaley, INEMIIMEMIMIIMEIMPEPO Judge OKs IGBE mine venture A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale has granted the co-owners of the collapsed International Gold Bullion Exchange permission to dig for gold in an offshore mine in Alaska in an attempt to pay back creditors. "This gold mine may be the Only source of recovery," Joe Easthope, an attorney for IGBE bankruptcy trustee Earl Faircloth, told Judge Sidney M.

Weaver yesterday. Weaver agreed to let William and James Alderdice, co-owners of the bankrupt precious-metals firm, go ahead. The Alderdice brothers contend enough money can be generated from the mine to pay back some 23,000 creditors owed between $20 million and $40 million. A judge ordered IGBE shut down last April after a barrage of customer complaints nationwide. The Alderdices are in Broward County jail on New York state and federal fraud charges.

Warrant issued in travel-package case KEITH KOHN Miami News Staff 6 We haven't filed formal charges yet, because of an investigation into other charges. 9 FCC certifies Adam system The Federal Communications Commission yesterday certified Coleco Industries new Adam home-computer system as meeting its technical standards, clearing the way for the company to begin marketing the system. Robert Ungar, an official in the FCC's Office of Science and Technology, said the Adam's letter-quality printer passed agency tests earlier this week. Coleco said it planned to begin shipments "of a significant quantity" in mid-October. The Adam computer system's progress has been closely followed by financial analysts.

some of whom were worried the company would miss the crucial Christmas selling season. 1 I Radio personality Dick Vance is often described as well-mannered and polite. He's the host of "Shopper's Bazaar," which until last week aired on three South Florida stations. Albin Richard Bloomburg Jr. has been in legal trouble for more than three years.

Vance and Bloomburg. An unlikely pair. Not really, says a civil complaint filed in Broward Circuit Court by the Florida Attorney General's Office. Albin Richard Bloomburg Jr. and Dick Vance are the same man, the complaint says.

The complaint accuses "Bloomburg, aka Dick Vance" and two of his Fort Lauderdale-based firms Bid and Buy Inc. and Sunrise Radio and Television Productions Inc. of misrepresentation, theft and deceptive-trade practices in the sale of discounted vacation packages he never delivered. Yesterday, the Broward State Attorney's Office issued a warrant for Vance's arrest, on a probable-cause affidavit accusing Vance of running "an organized scheme to defraud," said assistant State Attorney Brian Cavanagh. Cavanagh said Vance's attorney notified the state attorney's office that Vance will surrender today.

Vance could not be reached for comment. According to the Attorney General's complaint, Vance promoted the vacation packages over the air to residents of Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. He told listeners that would get cheap holiday "trips, tours, cruises and vacations" by joining his VIP Travel Club, the complaint says. But the complaint, filed Sept. 13, says scores of people never got the vacations they paid for.

It includes complaints from 140 people who paid for trips to Hawaii and the Caribbean and got nothing and adds that in total, Vance's firms owe South Florida residents about $2.89 million. The civil complaint asks Broward Circuit Judge Linda Vitale to revoke the corporate charters of Vance's two firms; revoke any business permits the firms or Vance have; reimburse consumers who did not receive their trips; freeze the defendants' assets; and appoint a receiver to seize Vance's assets. The complaint adds that the companies have been operating at a loss since 1977 and provided trips to some customers with fees paid by others. Brian Cavanagh Vitale issued a temporary restraining order Sept. 13 prohibiting Vance from selling any more travel packages on the radio, altering his records or dissolving his assets until a Oct.

7 hearing. Cavanagh said his office had been investigating Vance and his firms for more than 112 months. One of the three radio stations that carried "Shopper's Bazaar" canceled it a month ago, and the other two dropped it after the complaint was filed, spokesmen for the three stations said. "We haven't filed formal charges yet, because of an investigation into other charges," Cavanagh said. He said charges will be filed "within the next 21 days." Vance's attorney, John O'Donnell of Fort Lauderdale, issued a statement yesterday saying, "There has been no indictment at this point.

I have no comment at this time." The Florida Attorney General's civil complaint contains accusations similar to actions brought against Vance by the Iowa Attorney General's office three years ago. In that state, Vance and Bid and Buy Inc. were ordered by an Iowa district judge to halt production of their television program, called "Auction Action," which was similar in format to "Shopper's Bazaar." It aired in Iowa from 1977 through 1980. Like "Shopper's Bazaar," "Auction Action" promoted and sold discounted travel packages but did not deliver the trips or refunds, the Florida complaint says. The Iowa court ordered VanceBloomburg to pay back about $400,000 to Iowa consumers, the Florida complaint says.

Vance has been paying back the Iowans but still owes $223,390. the complaint says. But it also alleges that much of the money given back to Iowans has come from vacation sales made in South Florida. Dow average hits high again Propelled by a late rally in the credit markets and some favorable short interest news, the stock market made a strong advance yesterday with the Dow Jones industrial average closing at a new high for the second time this week. At the end of trading, the 30 prominent issues that comprise the average were up 14.23 points, to 1,257.52.

On Tuesday, the indicator closed at a record 1,249.19. Most of yesterday's strength came in the last hour of trading after bond prices began to rally. 1 1 Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Zilberberg, in Miami, said many complaints his office received came from elderly residents of North Dade, where the Broward radio signals are easy to pick up. David Casey, a press aide in the Broward State Attorney's office said his office has been "swamped" with complaints. "They got 200 complaints" Sept.

14. Casey said. Cavanagh said he has enough complaints to work with "from now until One North Dade resident listed among purchasers of the cheap vacations was S. Kaplan, a 59-year-old Miami Lakes resident. Kaplan said he and a friend paid more than $700 for trips to Hawaii, Daytona Beach and Runaway Bay, Jamaica.

He said Vance "is very friendly, very jovial" and "acted very sure of himself." He said an armed guard stood outside the door of Vance's firm, but "(Vance) was so friendly in his office. He even had coffee brought in." Another "Shopper's Bazaar" complaint came from Miami Beach resident Ben Klempner. Klempner said he and his wife, Go Idle, lost $3,500 trying to get a vacation. Klempner said his wife heard of the vacation bargains from a friend. However, most of the complaints came from radio listeners, the complaint shows.

Vance aired his show on WEXY, WBSS and WAVS, buying the air time and reselling it, according to spokesmen for all three stations. WBSS canceled the show last month, general manager Bill Heaton said. The other two dropped it after the Attorney General's complaint was filed. Heaton said he was aware of Vance's legal difficultie in Iowa. "We had checked with the Iowa authorities, and we were satisfied that he was making restitution.

I understand now that he is behind," Heaton said. He said Vance owes the station some money. According to a copy of a contract Vance signed with one customer who later complained, the vacation packages he sold were cheap but risky. The trips, according to the contract, could "be bumped seven days, or more, before you leave. You could be bumped more than one time twice, thrice, even four or five times.

Sometimes you go, sometimes you don't go." The contract said the price of the trips would be "cheerfully refunded" if the customer didn't get his vacation within a year but bumped consumers never received rescheduled trips or refunds, according to the complaint. The owner of a Hollywood travel agency, who said his firm sold Vance several trips, said Vance paid the full price. "They paid us whatever the full shot was," said the owner, who asked that he not be identified. He said Vance paid $2,500 for similar trips for two to Hawaii that consumer Kaplan bought for $499 (but never got to take). The travel-agency owner said none of the trips he sold Vance were on a standby basis, and the VIP Travel Club "rarely" canceled trips.

After the Broward State Attorney began investigating Vance's firms, the complaint says, VIP club members were sent a letter assessing them $50 for legal fees. Those letters said that if the $50 was not paid, the member was no longer "a member in good standing." Dollar gains; gold mixed The dollar reached a record high against the Italian lira, and rose against most other major currencies in listless trading yesterday. Gold prices, meanwhile, fell $3 a troy ounce to $408.50 in Zurich and slipped $1.75 to $408.75 in London. At New York's Commodity Exchange, gold gained 40 cents to $412.30 and later at Republic National Bank the metal advanced $1 to $412. Silver lost 12 cents in London to $11.70 before gaining 1 cent on the Comex to $11.86.

1 1 SEC approves disclosure changes The New York Times News Service ers, and in filings with the SEC. The commission also voted to require companies to report the value of executive stock options only when they are granted and when they are exercised. Until now they have been reported each year. The rule changes adopted yesterday, which are part of the commission's deregulation efforts, are intended to lower the costs of preparing proxy statements and to make them easier to read. Under the new disclosure requirements, executive perquisites do not have to be disclosed at all unless their value equals $25,000 or 10 per cent of cash pay whichever is less.

Florida notes Macy's announced an Oct. 6 grand opening of its store at the Aventura Mall in North Miami Beach Harris Melbourne, said it is transferring the headquarters of its information systems' international division from Melbourne to Geneva, Switzerland First Federal Sayings and Loan Association of Fort Myers, converting to stock ownership, offered 1.1-million shares to the public yesterday Capitol Air said it will begin twice-a-week non-stop service between Miami and Aguadilla, P.R., on Oct. 20 From Miami News wire services and other sources Ray Lynch II WASHINGTON The Securities and Exchange Commission has reduced the amount of information about management compensation that companies must disclose. The new rule is effective immediately. By a vote of 5 to 0, the commission yesterday decided that publicly held corporations must continue to report the cash compensation of senior officers but may withhold details of such perquisites as the use of company planes, cars, apartments or club memberships.

Executive compensation is typically disclosed in annual reports, which such companies must issue to stockhold -41 I Your guide to the money markets Commentary Sorry J.R. fans, executive life is not as exciting as TV series Fink: Pact needed to avert walkout ROBERT ADAMS T-bill yields drop again Certificates Miami News Reporter Banks 8.99 9.53 10.4 11.99 9.53 10.65 3-Month Money-Market Certificate 6-Month Money-Market Certificate 112-year MoneyMarket Certificate PHILIP MOELLER The Baltimore Sun Money Market Funds I Funds with assets of $100 million or more that are available to individual investors. September 23, 1983 7-Day 30-Dv 7-Day 30-Day Life in the executive suite, as we all know, is the exhilarating stuff of which TV series and best-selling novels are made. Money. Power.

Sex. Jet-setting Yield Current Yield Current Assets tSmtiliont und The head of Eastern Airlines' flight-attendants union said she will call for a strike if company and union negotiators have not reached agree- ment on a new contract by a mid- night Oct. 12 deadline. 1. :4.

Patricia Fink, president of Trans t. ,,,,::4 she ill rukregre Union members to strike 55 3 said iai :4 because. without a contract, man- 4 agement could impose pay and bene- fit cuts proposed recently by Eastern 4 'j chairman Frank Borman. "We would have no choice but to 4 strike if we don't have a contract be a 1 if '0 1- ,..4. 4 fl i I analyzed.

Production schedules need to be finalized. Tax questions. Potential litigation. Employe benefit changes. Shareholder relations.

Marketing and advertising. Public relations. Meetings, meetings, meetings. All of these topics can affect the corporation. And for each subject, there is a group of advocates within or outside the corporation whose views should at least be solicited, if not followed.

In the last analysis, so to speak, a successful executive is characterized less by being powerful or conniving than by having a durable posterior. If this view of reality seems as exaggerated as the image of business conveyed by the "Dallas" oilman J.R. Ewing, consider the words of wisdom provided by Xerox Learning Systems, a Stamford, unit of the big office-products company. Xerox Learning, which peddles instructional material to executives, described the life of the typical executive in a recent sales brochure as follows: "Right now, the typical highly placed executive spends more than five hours each day on the job In meetings. In fact, the higher you rise, the more time you will have to allocate each day strictly for meetings.

Right now, the typical CEO (chief executive officer) logs six hours-plus in the meeting venue every livelong working day. "From now on, you are going to spend 70 per cent of every working day of your business career either leading or attending meetings. Make no mistake; that is going to be your prime responsibility from here on From now on, your business future depends more on how good you are at leading meetings than on anything else." Xerox, of course, is interested in selling business people a sure-fire way to learn what it takes to conduct the perfect meeting. But the firm's promotional material has the perhaps unintended effect of portraying the often-dull realities of corporate leadership. Sorry, J.R.

fans, but that's the real reason corporate leaders are called chairman. SI 8.3 9.2 9.1 9.2 6.8 11.6 8.9 9.1 9.1 9.2 9.0 9.0 11.9 8.6 8.9 8.7 8.7 9.0 132 1P4 8.6 8.9 8.8 9.1 9.4 9.3 9.8 11.7 9.3 11.8 9.1 9.0 11.5 9.0 11.11 8.6 8.9 9.0 9.2 9.3 8.11 9.0 8.7 8.4 9.1 9.3 9.2 11.1 11.9 8.9 9.1 9.0 1.1 9.1 9.0 9.0 1.9 119 17 1.7 9.0 1.2 9.3 9.0 1.1 9.1 9.3 9.4 9.3 1.3 1.7 9.1 8.1 9.1 9.3 8.9 1.8 8.1 8.7 1.9 11.0 9.1 9.3 1.8 1.1P 119 Alliance Capital Resarves 791.1 Capital Preservation 1411.1 Cash Equivalant 4460.1 Cash Management Trust SM.6 Cash Reserve Managamant 4,516.3 Columbia Daily incom 454.3 Current I eeeee 114.6 Daily Cash Accum. Class 3,190.2 Daily Income 472.8 De lawara Cash Ramiro 1,355.6 Dreyfus Liquid A 7,900.4 Eaton Vancit Cash Mgt. 171.4 Fed Fund 1,237.2 Fidelity Cash Reserves 3,369.5 Fidelity Daily Income 2427.1 First Variablo Rate 716.0 Franklin Money Fund 812.1 FundGovernment Investors 901.4 Governmant Investors Trust 369.5 Gradison Cash Reserves 438.3 I.D.S. Cash Management 909.6 John Hancock Cash Mgt Trust 412.1 Kemper Money Market 3,436.9 Legg Mason Csh Piing.

Trust 203.1 Liquid Capital Incomit 1462.4 Lord Abbott Cash Retire. 227.1 Mass. Cash Mgmt Trust 737.9 Marti II Lynch Government 1,422.9 Merrill Lynch Institutional 1,000.5 Merrill Lynch Riady Assets 12,162.1 Midwest Income 149.9 Monist Market Management 277.1 Money Mart A 2423.0 Mutual of Omaha 290.2 National Liquid Reservits 1,520.7 N.E.L. Cash Mgmt Acct. 682.4 Oppenheimer Monetary 1,183.1 Pain Webber Cashfund 4,251.5 Putnam Daily Div Trust 301.3 Resort" Fund 1,927.2 Scudder Cash Inv Trust 908.7 Shearson Daily Dividend 3,927.5 Stein Roe Cash Rosary's 775.1 T-Fund 855.1 TempFursd 4,061.5 United Cash Managamant 332.3 Vanguard M'ny Mkt.

Trust 1 370.0 Webster Cash Rasarve 1,109.5 MONEY FUND AVERAGE (All Funds) 37 After being chauffeured to work in his limo, our typical executive begins his day with a few telephone calls to powerful politicians, cabinet secretaries and heads of state. A brief time, of course, is spent going over the operating results of his company's far-flung divisions. Spotting some poor results, he fires a couple of division heads and lays off 2,000 or 3,000 employes. After lunch (a tete-a-tete with a voluptuous movie star being considered for the company's latest ad campaign), the executive really gets down to work. Three competitors are put out of business by shrewd action.

Huge bribes are authorized to members of the ruling families in some backward countries, thus locking up worldwide access to crucial raw materials. And by the seventh hole of his daily golf game, our leader already has conquered his latest merger victim, persuading the head of a very successful company to sell out for 12 cents on the dollar. On the way to the airport In his limo, our tycoon devises a revolutionary new product a substitute for water. He then Jets off to Monte Carlo, wins a few million at the roulette table and turns in early so he's rested for his monthly ceremony, at which new European employes of his multi-national conglomerate offer him their first-born Infants as a pledge of loyalty. It's a great life.

And, occasionally, a William Agee or a John De Lorean pops up to "prove" that truth is stranger than fiction. But the truth, for most executives, is that being among the corporate elite means being in meeting after meeting after meeting. Countless "action" memoranda must be dealt with. Zillions of internal reports must be Fink cause there could be mandatory imposition of those conditions," Fink said in an interview yesterday. Eastern spokesman Richard McGraw declined to comment on whether the airline would in fact mandate the cuts.

"I can't reveal our strategy" for gaining acceptance of the proposals, McGraw said. The two sides are observing a 30-day "cooling-off period" invoked by the National Mediation Board. The flight attendants will be free to strike when the period expires midnight Oct. 12. Earlier this week, the board summoned Eastern and union representatives to a new round of negotiations starting Monday in Cocoa Beach.

Eastern and the flight attendants have been trying for more than 18 months to draft a new labor agreement. Fink said TWU members will not "consider any concessions until after we have a contract signed." In a letter distributed this week, Borman asked employes to give up 15 per cent of their pay Nov. 1, and 5 per cent more on Jan. 1 if the company cannot achieve savings of the same amount through other means. He also proposed a 20 per cent to 25 per cent cut in 1984 vacations.

Fink said negotiations had achieved an agreement on the flight attendants' retirement provisions, but a 20 per cent pay cut would significantly change retirement benefits, which reflect employes' salaries. "This is unreasonable and we can't consider it," she said. Yields represent annualized total return to shareholders for past seven-and 30-day period. Past returns not necessarily indicative of future yields. Investment quality and maturity may vary among funds.

average term to next rate adjustment date..