The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 76

iiMij i iji ry Tjjr ijy Hjy Tp''jjiri)i piipjtiiippri(pBFy IP j) py qpw ip jjJi 0f gp 9 IP pP 'pj gpn gyp prpr pr ip tir iigpn rji iri Ximnii iiw iiTpiiii(i iii iiyn11 nn1 qy rw, pi nr pi VJ'fL XJ fJ THE RECORD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1987 C-16 Grand Union closes a store in Glen Rock estern Union nearer to merger By Ron 8tpnkl Record Business Writer By Wandy Diller Record Business Writer i if muniinniliT-ilnr-ii-- nnr --f-'ntm nJiilrMf-irrritn1iiliilriifVrBrniiir Western Union Corporation said it will announce Monday whether shareholders approved a controversial restructuring plan that could be the company's only alternative to filing for bankruptcy. The company finally closed the polls yesterday after postponing the deadline several times in the past three months. It then adjourned its stockholders meeting scheduled for yesterday at the company's headquarters in Upper Saddle River until Monday in order to count the votes. CARMINE GALASSOTHE RECORD right, were on friendly terms at yesterday's meeting. Shareholders packed the Upper Saddle River meeting.

Two key players In Western Union's planned restructuring, Marcello Valen-zano, above left, and Bennett S. Le Bow, Shareholders voted on only one aspect of the restructuring plan whether to merge Western Union into its principal subsidiary, the Western Union Telegraph Company, and, in the process, exchange existing shares for new issues. If the merger passes, other conditions would have to be met for the plan to go into effect, but these would not be subject to a shareholders' vote. If the merger doesn't pass, the company insists it will have to file for Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code. In Chapter 11, a company seeks court protection from creditors while it tries to pay off debts.

Western Union executives, however, said yesterday that they believe they have enough votes to pass the merger. One reason for the executives' confidence stems from a dramatic reversal agreed to yesterday. The company said it has reached an agreement with Marcello Valenzano, a preferred shareholder who has been waging a proxy fight against the restructuring plan since October. The company said it would appoint Valenzano to its board of directors if the restructuring goes through. And, at Valen-zano's urging, it said the board of directors of the restructured company would consider establishing an ad hoc committee to See MERGER Page C-18 The Grand Union Company has closed its Glen Rock supermarket, its third Bergen County supermarket this year.

But the company says it isn't abandoning neighborhood supermarkets. Vice-President Donald C. Vaillancourt said the company has spent heavily to upgrade its other Bergen County stores, despite closing some smaller, less profitable locations. He said the Glen Rock store was marginally profitable and facing lease renewal when the company closed it last Saturday. 'It's an old store' "It's an old store, not really susceptible to any modernization or any renovation, and it has just been marginally profitable," he said.

Franklin Lakes and Englewood stores were closed for similar reasons earlier this year, he added. Still, Vaillancourt said the 363-store Wayne-based chain which has 19 stores in Bergen and four in Passaic County also has spent heavily to renovate or expand at least seven other local stores in Oakland, Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Wood-Ridge, Ramsey and two stores in Clifton over the past two years. It is currently spending about $4.2 million to renovate its Wyckoff store and converted its former Basics Food Warehouse in Wood-Ridge to a new Grand Union supermarket two months ago at a cost of $700,000, he said. It also plans renovations in its Teaneck and Montvale locations. Not pulling out of neighborhood stores "Don't paint it that Grand Union is withdrawing from local neighborhood stores, because that's not the case," Vaillancourt said.

"If small stores are successful, they'll continue to serve the area." The chain, with $2.9 billion in annual revenues, has a total of 363 stores in 11 states, including about 45 in New Jersey, he said. V)4 1. "M3 .0 4 1 L. Washington Post News Service ital Guardian Trust Company Chairman Robert Kirby, said Wednesday he agreed that if any price limits are imposed they ought to apply to stocks as well as stock index futures. Kirby, a Los Angeles-based money manager, said that imposing limits on daily stock price movements could lead to halts in trading that he characterized as "structured discontinuity." The random halts in trading of many stocks last October, caused by imbalances in buy and sell orders, were chaotic and might have been avoided if daily price limits were in place, Kirby said.

Price limits, widely used in the U.S. futures markets, were imposed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on stock index futures contracts following the October market collapse. Stock index futures give investors the opportunity to speculate on the movement of broad stock market averages. Chicago Mercantile officials responded to criticism that volatile stock index futures trading distorted stock prices in October by imposing temporary daily price limits. These officials have told the Brady Commission, however, that if price limits on stock index futures contracts become permanent, similar limits ought to be imposed on individual stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange and other markets.

Under such a system, if a stock selling, for $50 a share had a 20-percent limit $10 it could drop no further in a day once it hit $40 a share and could rise no further once it hit $60 a share. Unless the price reversed direction, trading would be halted when it hit the limit. One member of the Brady panel, Cap ways to limit the tremendous volatility in stock prices that climaxed in the 508-point plunge in the Dow Jones industrial average Oct. 19. One way to limit daily price swings would be to adopt a method used on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and set maximum daily limits on stock price movements.

Putting limits on stock price swings would have a profound impact on the market, however. The mere existence of the limits, along with the trading halts they could cause, would affect investment decisions made by speculators, investors, and other market participants. The presidential commission studying the October stock market collapse is considering limits on how much stock prices could move up or down in a day, sources said Wednesday. The five-man commission, led by investment banker Nicholas F. Brady, is expected to move next week from gathering information to forming conclusions about the causes of the market collapse and about possible remedies.

Among the critical issues the commission will address are Electronic banking takes on a new role TV ad ruffles feathers Drexel apologizes for commercial By Mitchell Pacelle Business Writer The Associated Press (fpff it aging movie theater, and dirt roads. "They didn't think how it was going to affect Vidalia," said Mayor Sam Ran-dazzo. "The image of Vidalia was wrong. They showed the wrong city. It was a city that was old.

We don't have any dirt streets. "They were very apologetic and I'm sure they will correct it." The spot was filmed in Hartford, near Fort Smith, 300 miles northeast of Vidalia. And folks there aren't very happy with the commercial either. Film crews posed bearded men on the sidewalk playing dominoes and used footage of an old theater in Mansfield. "It just did not depict how our town actually looked," said Mayor Norma Michael.

"It made Hartford look like a poverty town in the 1930's. It made Hartford look like something it isn't. It made us look like real backwoods hillbillies." puter, a touch-sensitive video montitor, color graphics, an audio track, and a printer. They provide customers with information on a wide variety of bank services. Punch in the value of your house, for instance, and the machine will calculate what kind of mortgage refinancing the Howard could offer you this week, and the potential tax breaks.

Customers cannot, however, use the new systems to get cash, make deposits, or pay their bills. The Howard system is believed to be the first such installation in the metropolitan area. Donald McCormick, Howard's chairman and chief executive officer, characterized the move as an experiment in "cross-selling" See BANK Page C-18 VIDALIA, La. A brokerage firm has apologized to this little Mississippi River town for a commercial depicting it as a rundown, dusty hamlet. Steven Anreder, spokesman for Drexel, Burnham, Lambert said Wednesday there was "was no intention to embarrass or cause any ill will" to the 6,000 residents of Vidalia.

Anreder added that the TV commercial is no longer being shown, except on certain cable outlets, and there are no plans to use it again. The commercial tells how Drexel's high-yield bonds helped rescue a hydroelectric project planned for Vidalia. But residents complained that Vidalia was depicted as looking like a depressed hill community, with a decaying town hall, an Are you a devotee of automatic cash machines? Would you also consider yourself lucky if you never again had to wait for a bank employee to answer a short question about mortgage rates or IRA accounts? Howard Savings Bank has taken one more step toward keeping you away from the customer service desk. Yesterday, Howard Savings's Newark, North Caldwell, and Clark branches unveiled hightech self-service money information systems, which the bank has dubbed "Howard the Video Computer Genius." The kiosks, located in the bank lobbies, feature a personal com AL PAGLIONETHE RECORD A customer trying out Howard, a high-tech self-service money information system, at Howard Savings Bank's North Caldwell office. can Telephone Telegraph Company and other carriers that use Comsat must provide the agency with information to determine how they should be required to pass on the Comsat refund to their customers.

PINKERTON'S SOLD BY AMERICAN BRANDS American Brands Inc. said it has agreed to sell its Pinkerton's unit to CPP Security Service for an undisclosed sum in a deal that will create a new giant in the security services business. Pinkerton's, which has been operating since the mid- 19th Century, is the nation's second-largest security company with 1986 revenue of $375 million. The industry leader is Burns International Security Services, a unit of Borg-Wamer Corporation. CPP, based in Van Nuys, began in the late 1940's performing night patrols for small retailers in the San Fernando Valley.

AMERICAN AIRLINES UNION SUIT HEARD A federal judge began hearing a request yesterday by the union that represents American Airlines flight attendants, who have filed suit to stop the company from firing them for walking out if a strike is called over the Christmas holidays. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, also demanded that the airline stop calling a possible strike illegal. The union represents 12,000 flight attendants at American. It has threatened to strike over the holidays if a negotiating session today is fruitless. Flight attendants have worked without a contract since Apr.

24. FROM THE RECORD AND WIRE SERVICES stock market crash, hit a peak of $768.4 billion in the week that ended Oct. 26, reflecting a surge of money flowing into the banking system. Since then, Ml has declined by $17.5 billion to the latest week's average. ASSETS OF MUTUAL FUNDS RISE Assets of the nation's 410 money market mutual funds rose $522.6 million in the latest week, the Investment Company Institute said yesterday.

The rise, to $262.41 billion in the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, followed a revised drop in the funds' assets the previous week, said the Washington, D.C.-based mutual fund trade group. JOHNSON JOHNSON SIGNS DEAL WITH CHINA New Brunswick-based Johnson Johnson will begin manufacturing and marketing Band-Aids, and perhaps Tylenol, in China. An agreement was signed between Johnson Johnson and the Shanghai Hygienic Supply Works, an agency of the Chinese government, to manufacture Band-Aids in a plant near Shanghai. A feasibility study for marketing Tylenol is underway. FCC ORDERS CUSTOMER REFUND The Federal Communications Commission yesterday ordered Communications Satellite Corporation to refund its customers $38.8 million plus interest, saying it had overcharged them between 1984 and 1986.

The FCC said it had determined that Comsat earned more than its allowable rate of return of 12.48 percent. The FCC also said the Ameri- I' ENGELHARD PLANS KAOLIN EXPANSION Engelhard Corporation of Edison, a manufacturer of chemicals and metallurgial products, has announced that it will expand its Georgia-based kaolin manufacturing facilities. Kaolin, a white clay comprised of aluminum and silicate, is used in a wide range of products and industries. The planned $80-million expansion of the kaolin manufacturing facilities will be the largest expansion of its kind in the U.S. kaolin industry, Englehard said.

MONEY SUPPLY FALLS BY The nation's basic money supply fell by $8.3 billion in the last week of November, the Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday. The Fed said Ml fell to a seasonally adjusted $750.9 billion in the week that ended Nov. 30 from a revised $759.2 billion the previous week. Ml includes cash in circulation, deposits in checking accounts, and nonbank traveler's checks. Ml, which stood at $754 billion Oct.

12, a week before the 1 1.