Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • 11

tlrje 2iarlfor5 jjourant SECTION TUESDAY MAY 2, 1989 ollmorgen accepts offer from Vernitron Insurers face more U.S. suits Companies accused of letting Medicare pay their obligations By PETER H. STONE Courant Staff Writer Government lawyers said Monday they expect to file more lawsuits against private insurers alleging the companies should have paid millions of dollars in claims that Medicare I-covered. A suit filed Friday against the Travelers Insurance Cos. by the U.S.

I Department of Justice is the third such action in the last two months -against an insurer. Altogether, the government is seeking to recoup tens of millions in the three suits. Travelers and the oher two insurers, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michi- gan and Provident Life Accident- See U.S., Page B8 SNEFS timetable: criticized St i -A openly for another buyer. The first "friendly" offer by Vernitron Dec. 15 was rebuffed, and Vernitron began a hostile tender offer of $23 Jan.

11. In response, Kollmorgen adopted a poison pill defense that would have made the acquisition very costly, because of big legal fees and a long delay before completing the merger. Then in February Vernitron made a second friendly offer, this time at $25 a share. During Vernitron's pursuit of Kollmorgen, shareholders sued, urging Kollmorgen management, at various times, to accept offers. Vernitron asked the courts to overturn the New York State takeover law that was the basis of Kollmorgen's poison pill defense.

Kollmorgen in the last two weeks had openly sought other prospective buyers or a restructuring of the company. The agreement Monday was a "friendly merger" at $25. Vernitron dropped its lawsuits and called off the proxy fight. Vernitron had commitments for $425 million in financing $250 million from Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. and $175 million from Ban-que Paribas, an investment bank based in France.

"We are borrowing to cover the cost of buying Kollmorgen, plus enough to refinance some of our own debt," Bershad said. James A. Eder, corporate secretary at Kollmorgen, said the agreement ends several months of uncertainty. See Kollmorgen, Page B8 By LAWRENCE B. RASIE Courant Staff Writer A five-month battle for control of Kollmorgen Corp.

ended Monday as the Stamford-based technology company agreed to be merged into the smaller Vernitron Corp. for $25 a share, or about $320 million. The agreement followed two weeks of maneuvering by Kollmorgen as it searched for another buyer and a better offer for shareholders. The merger still depends on several factors, notably approval by Kollmorgen shareholders and financing. Emerging from the five-month fray will be a larger technology company, with products in optics and electronics and more than $400 million in annual sales.

The combined assets and sales will provide the larger base needed to support advanced research and development at Vernitron, which is based in Deerfield, N.Y., company officials said. Further, the larger Vernitron is positioning itself for unification of the European Common Market in 1992. "We have just begun in Europe, but Kollmorgen has an established presence in Europe that will be a great help to us," said Stephen W. Bershad, chairman and chief executive of Vernitron. The agreement Monday ended a five-month contest that began with a friendly offer of $20 a share in December, included several lawsuits, an unfriendly tender offer, a second friendly offer and two weeks ago Kollmorgen's decision to search I J8 Superior Electric is silent on future Shana Sureck The Hartford Courant Paul A.

Campbell is assistant director of actuar- versity is starting a new undergraduate program ial studies at the University of Hartford. The uni- in actuarial science in September. A mission to train actuaries I Robert F. Murphy INSIDE I Skl I BUSINESS 1 cause "insurance companies use a lot of actuaries, and there really aren't very many of them," said Arnold W. Wright, vice president and executive director of Cigna Foundation.

Besides, the university is close to Bloomfield, "one of two home ports" for the company, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, he said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said there were only 9,400 actuaries in the country in 1986, the most recent figures available. Aetna Life Casualty Co. annually hires 15 to 20 actuarial trainees overall, and Cigna hires about 15 for its property-casualty operations alone.

Despite the number of insurers in New England, undergraduate actuarial programs are few and far between in the Northeast, Campbell said. The studies are most common at colleges in the Midwest and Southeast. "To me what that says is that there are a lot of students in the northeast corner of the United States who need what we have," Campbell said. Ranked the most desirable job last year by the Jobs Rated Almanac, an actuary analyzes the past and present to predict the future, to help other people make intelligent business decisions. Actuaries'.

By DIANE LEVICK Courant Staff Writer Actuaries. Many insurance companies can't get enough of them. Neither can consulting and accounting firms or government agencies. So the University of Hartford has decided to be part of the solution by starting a new undergraduate program in actuarial science in September. For many years, the university has offered non-credit graduate-level courses in actuarial studies, drawing students from as far away as Springfield and Stamford.

Often they already work for insurance companies. But the University of Hartford, aided by a $600,000 grant from Cigna will now join two other area colleges in grooming future actuaries at the undergraduate level. "What happened was a natural extension for this university because of a commitment to fill a need," said Paul A. Campbell, assistant director of actuarial studies. He was the consultant who helped create the program within the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business and Public Administration.

Cigna kicked in the $600,000 be '-3. duties include calculating the likelihood of accidents, death or property damage and how pensions should be funded. They may work for insurance companies or major corporations that need help analyzing how they need to fund employee benefits, such as health insurance and pension plans. Campbell knows of actuaries who have calculated the life spans of trees or worked for a phone company. Actuaries, Campbell said, "have a reputation of being far, far narrower in breadth than they really are." Campbell, who received his master of actuarial science degree from the University of Michigan, said that he has worked in 35 countries and has advised people in marketing and investment strategies.

Now he is recruiting students for the University of Hartford's new program, promoting both the school and the actuarial profession. The four-year program leads to a bachelor of business administration in actuarial science. The school expects five to 10 students to enter the program this fall, some of them as juniors. The See University, Page B5 D.C., which struck down the minority distress sale policy. Astroline bought the station from Faith Center of Glendale, for $3.1 million under terms of the policy, which allows broadcasters to avoid discipline by selling to a qualified minority-controlled company at a reduced price.

Rameriz is Hispanic. The sale came after after Faith Center, which broadcast religious By SANDRA CLARK Courant Staff Writer State Consumer Counsel James Meehan told state utility regulators Monday that telephone service in 10 communities should be improved sooner than Southern New England Telecommunications Corp. plans to doit. Meehan requested the meeting with the Department of Public Utility Control to question the schedule SNET has set up to modernize switching offices of 38 rural and suburban towns. Those switching centers are old and are deteriorating.

Commercial and residential customers have complained that lines are noisy and that occasionally they are unable to get or receive calls. Commercial customers are unable to get call forwarding, call waiting or conference calling. SNET recognizes the problem and, in accordance with a 1988 utility control department ruling, is modernizing. SNET announced Monday that it had moved up the installation date for new equipment in two of the 38 towns. Groton and Colchester, initially scheduled to get new equipment in the spring of 1990, will get it this December, SNET officials said.

However, Meehan said the company has not moved fast enough in areas where modernization would significantly lower the number of complaints. The 19 communities were targeted because they have the highest number of complaints, said Bill Kowalski, staff attorney with the Consumer Counsel. The 10 communities Meehan named are: the Baltic section of Sprague, Colchester, Coventry, Jewett City section of Griswold, Litchfield, Marlborough, Putnam, Thompson, Stafford and Wolcott. Meehan asked why the schedules for Groton and Colchester were changed. "Switch modernization is as much a political decision as it is an engineering decision," Meehan said.

In the case of Groton, "a change in our vendor's schedule allows us to complete our work before the offices busiest calling season," a SNET pre- See State, Page B5 financing programming, refused to open its fundraising records to the FCC. The sale was challenged in court by Alan Shurberg, a Rocky Hill businessman who asserted the policy violated his Constitutional rights by depriving him of the right to buy the station. He argued in his suit that the policy discriminated against non-minorities. On March 31, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, ruled in Shurberg's favor.

He could not be, reached for comment Monday. Astroline has retained the Wash-: ington D.C. law firm of Baker and. Hostetler which plans to appeal the. panel's decision to the full U.S.

Court of Appeals. Chapter 11 bankruptcy gives Astroline protection from its credi-" -tors while it works out a plan to repay its debts of about $13.4 million, court records show. Superior Electric Co. will announce first quarter sales and earnings today, but it was unclear Monday whether the report will include any information that will diminish the suspense about the company's future. That suspense was heightened when the Bristol company's annual report was mailed to shareholders Friday without any reference to two new state-of-the-art products or any comment on a possible restructuring of ownership.

Additionally, the proxy statement for the May 26 shareholders' meeting, mailed with the annual report, does not contain expected items dealing with a sale of part of the company. Late last year, Superior Electric said discussions were being held "with several parties regarding a possible minority equity investment in the company." Dec. 20 disclosure was the last official utterance by the company about the matter. Then, in March, the company told the back offices of stock brokers that the annual shareholders' meeting, traditionally held in the third week of April, was being delayed to May 26. The delay in holding the annual meeting was never explained to shareholders, but brokers interpreted it to mean negotiations were under way for sale of an interest in the company.

Although the company refused to confirm this interpretation, it did nothing to discourage it. Also fueling the speculation about major changes in Superior Electric's ownership were March 31 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that reported revisions i Today's data i DOW JONES AVERAGE (Monday's close) 30 Industrial 2,414.96 Down 3.84 points W-BILLS 12 month 9.22 6 month 8.64 3 month 8.64 "M0RTGAGES Average, based on local survey) Adjustable, 1 11.83 Fixed, 30 yr 11.42 Inside Some employees bailing out As a strike at Eastern goes into 3rd month, some employees are bailing out. Page B8. Emhart officers named to top Several Emhart officers have been named to top posts at new parent company. Page B8.

to executive severance packages, known as golden parachutes, in case of ownership changes that cost senior executives their jobs. The speculation about a sale or takeover of the company has had a positive effect on Superior Electric stock, traded over the counter. In December, the takeover perception by investors caused Superior Electric shares to advance $6.75 a share to a 1988 high of $18 a share. Monday, the stock was trading at $16.75, up 25 cents a share. There are 3 million shares outstanding, with about 20 percent held by relatives of founders and about 10 percent by management insiders.

The new annual report does not even have the traditional letter to stockholders from President and Chief Executive Officer Maurice P. Andrien. Andrien's office said Monday he was in meetings and unavailable for comment. Annual reports to shareholders are a venue used for trumpeting managment's accomplishments or explaining failures in performance or providing information on products expected to improve earnings. Superior Electric for three years has been posting losses and has reported a long series of unprofitable-quarters.

See Future, Page B8 3-month T-bills The average yield on three-month Treasury bills at Monday's auction was 8.64 percent, down from 8.66 percent the previous week. 6 13 20 27 3 10 17 24 IN PERCENT 9A II fjfllj 27 Channel 18 seeks new investors or new Since Astroline bought the station in 1985, its finances have been drained fighting a challenge to the Federal Communication Commission's "minority distress sale" policy, under which it got Channel 18. By STEPHEN M. WILLIAMS Courant Staff Writer WHCT-TV, Channel 18, wants to attract new investors or arrange new financing in an effort to get out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a top official of the Hartford station said Monday. Richard P.

Rameriz, managing partner of Astroline Communications Co. Ltd. of Saugus, which owns Channel 18, said he has not ruled out the sale of the television station. But he said sale of the station probably would be a last resort to get out from under bankruptcy. "There have been suitors that we have spoken to, but I wouldn't characterize it as negotiations," Rameriz said.

Any sale of the television station would have to be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Hartford. Since Astroline bought the station in 1985, its finances have been drained fighting a challenge to the Federal Communication Commission's "minority distress sale" policy, under which it got Channel 18. Rameriz told employees during a staff meeting Monday that Astroline would appeal a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington,.