Lexington Herald-Leader from Lexington, Kentucky • 10

Lexington Herald-Leader SUSDN A10 Saturday March 24 1990 i 9- i UAL will allow Davis to buy stock News in brief National Ex-suitor could pose rival to unions 9: wv a aga The fourth and latest proposal was announced Monday by Coniston and foe unions representing pilots machinists and flight attendants Under the offer shareholders would receive $150 per share in cash $25 in debt securities and stock in the new company The unions would make wage and benefit concessions in five-year contracts tiut contain nostrike clauses The bid would give UAL employees including non-union workers 75 percent ownership of foe company The UAL board Thursday said it would negotiate on the latest offer by the Coruston-union group even though it thought the offer had "serious nuke a bid If very speculative:" Rob Doughty UAL spokesman said he could not elaborate an a brief statement saying foe company had modified a standstill agreement with Davis to allow him to buy stock Davis spokeswoman Mary Conway in New York also had no comment Neither would say if Davis has a new buy-out offer on the tablt In January die UAL board said it would consider offers from Davis but the agreement had blocked him from purchasing stock Davis a Los Angeles billionaire in August made an unsolicited offer which was not accepted of $200 a share or $432 billion for UAL The United Airines pilots were the first employee group to propose buying die company three years Coniston Partners biggest shareholder and the backer of the union buy-out expressed skepticism that Davis would make an offer Tm not sure what they (board members) were trying to accomplish or what foe implications might be" said Keith Gollust a principal in Coniston a New York-based investment group Gollust said that more than two months ago Coniston urged foe UAL board to lift the restriction purchase of stock as a way to enhance shareholder value see why anyone shouldn't be able to buy foe he said yesterday "As a practical matter I don't expect him (Davis) to to test call-tracing feature in state ilnaa ttmf nlafl tf flUUl'C GTE does not plan to The call-tracing feature has aroused opposition from civil liberties groups in other states which argue that revealing a caller's phone number is an invasion of privacy ties groups in other states which argue that revealing a caller's phone number is an invasion of privacy GTE hopes to avert criticism by offering an additional feature that would let people with unlisted numbers keep those numbers secret With call tracing a phone number appears an a small electronic screen attached to the telephone Callers with unlisted numbers would be able to buy a Stock market posts slight gain after dropping 3 straight days Staff win reports NEW YORK The stock market rose modestly yesterday recovering from three straight days of declines Analysts said the market was bolstered by a moderate gain overnight in die Tokyo stock market and an advance yesterday in the US bond market The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials gained 856 points to 270428 Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by about 3 to 2 in nationwide trading of New York Stock Exchange-listed stocks with 884 up 571 down and 527 unchanged Volume on the floor of the Big Board totaled 132X17 million sham down from 17593 million in Thursday's session The NYSE's composite index edged up 075 to 18545 Standard Poor's industrial index rose 178 to 38124 and 500-stock composite index advanced 123 to 33722 The NASDAQ composite index for the over-the-counter market was up 274 at 43725 At the American Stock Exchange the market value index rose 113 to 36161 Wisconsin bans hormone for dairy cows MADISON Wit The companies that produce a synthetic milk-producing hormone for dairy cattle may take Wisconsin to court to overturn a temporary ban oh use of the substance a lobbyist said yesterday The legislature on Thursday sent Gov Tommy Thompson a bill enacting the moratorium which would be a setback for the four chemical companies that make genetically engineered BGH or bovine growth hormone The Republican governor refused to say whether he would sign the measure Sen Russell Feingold the sponsor said if Thompson signed the bill Wisconsin would become the first state to ban the hormone that is injected into cows to make them give more milk Researchers say BGH boosts milk production by up to 20 percent The companies that produce die hormone are Monsanto Agricu- ture CO Eli Lilly Ca Upjohn Co and American Cyanamid Investors cautious about Ingersoll plan ST LOUIS Looming problems related to junk bond debt are threatening Ingersoll Publications owner of the new St Louis Sun newspaper and a host of other publications A plan by owner Ralph Ingersoll II to buy bade some of the company's junk bonds at cut-rate prices is not receiving a warm welcome from analysts and bondholders Ingersoll Publications Inc whose newspaper holdings include dailies and weeklies across the country and in Europe offered to buy back $1586 million of its debt at a big discount The offer comes three months before the Ingersoll subsidiary Community Newspapers must its $125 million worth of bonds The bonds issued at 13 percent interest have been selling at 40 cents on the dollar The reset provision would require Ingersoll to raise the rate so the bonds would sell at $101 February durable goods orders up 33 WASHINGTON Orders for home appliances machinery and other durable goods rose 33 percent last month the government said yesterday but analysts said the modest rebound from a record 107 percent slide in January pointed to continued weakness in manufacturing The Commerce Department said orders to US factories for durable goods items expected to last more than three years totaled a seasonally adjusted $1216 billion The January decline revised from the originally reported 105 percent was the biggest since the government began keeping track of such orders 32 years ago and broke the record set in the recession month of February 1982 when orders plummeted 92 percent Transportation orders which foil 294 percent in January and accounted for most of that month's drop bounced back 112 percent last month to $302 billion Auto sales declined 95 in mid-March DETROIT Sales of North American-built cars and trucks tumbled 95 percent in mid-March compared with a weak period last year as the absence of big rebates especially on trucks showed its effect automaken said yesterday The nine mnjir automaken with U5 plants said they sold can and trucks at an average daily rate of 35497 during March 11-20 this year compand with a rate of 39225 during the same period last year Car sales slipped 89 percent while truck sales were down 105 percenL On Thursday General Muton Corp offend $1000 rebates on its three-vehicle line erf frontwheeldrive minivans and Ford Motor Ca is offering a $500 rebate on its Amwtar minivan Chrysler led the decline in mid March sales with a 299 percent drop in car sales and a 233 percent decline in truck sales combining for a 266 percent overall sales skid Sale of WDKY-TV falls through because couple lack financing By Susan White and Tom Daykin Herald-Leader stall wrrtera A tentative agreement to sell WDKY-TV Lexington's only independent station is dead station owner John Backe said yesterday Backe said the deal to sell WDKY to Paula and Steven Pruett of Chicago fell through because foe Pruetts "couldn't get their "When they were supposed to close in Backe said "they came right up to that date telling us they were going to dose and they couldn't dose they said they were going to get it fixed and it kept dragging and dragging and drag Associated Press CHICAGO UAL Corpus board of directors said yesterday it would let former suitor Marvin Davis again buy company stock raising die possibility of a rival buy-out offer to the $35 billion bid by unions and a major shareholder Davis sparked a bidding war for UAL in August but withdrew his buy-out proposals after the company the parent of United Airlines accepted a higher offer from a group led by senior management and its pilots union That plan later collapsed UAL stock finished up $512 Vi at $15757 yesterday on die New York Stock Exchange although GTE asks By Hiawatha Bray Harald-Laader business writer A controversial feature that lets telephone users trace incoming calls is one of several new services that GTE South wants to introduce in Kentucky Yesterday GTE South asked the state Public Service Commission for permission to offer the services to be marketed under the name Smart-Call The request seeks approval for trial marketing of SmartCall in Elizabethtown this summer The services would be offered in Lexington next and gradually would be made available in other GTE service areas in the state The call-tracing feature has aroused opposition from civil liber- Ruling gives reprieve to bailout plan Associated Press WASHINGTON President savings and loan bailout got a reprieve yesterday when a federal appeals court paved the way for the government to seize a suburban Chicago thrift institution The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit lifted a lower court order that had barred the Treasury Department's Office of Thrift Supervision from taking control of Olympic Savings -and Loan Association of Berwyn IIL However it forbade regulators from liquidating the thrift and selling its $11 biliion in assets The order effective for 30 days remove a preliminary injunction issued Wednesday by 175: District Judge Koyce Lamberth He ruled that acting thrift office Director Salvatore Martoche and his predecessor Danny Wall were appointed unconstitutionally and had no authority to order the takeover Wall who had been chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Hoard was guaranteed the thrift office job in legislation enacted in August The law abolished the bank board and parceled out it duties to the new thrift office and other agencies Lambcnti said Wall should have been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate as required by the Constitution The appeals court made no decision on the merits of Lam-berth's reading of the Constitution but it said barring a takeover of Olympic could hurt the public Government attorneys argued that Lamhrrth'B injunction could cost taxpayers millions of dollars by encuuraging a flood of similar suits from other weak thrifts In a reply attorneys for Olympic said allowing regulators to seize the thrift would make its suit pointless "Olympic will clearly suffer irreparable injury if a stay prnding appeal is they wrote The appellate court gave the two sides deadlier for filing written arguments and scheduled a hearing before a three-judge panel April 11 Meanwhilr Hash i moving cm anothrr front to blunt the rffert of the suit by nominating former Labe Department attorney Timothy Ryan Jr to a five yrnr term as director of the thrift office aggressively market the unlisted-number protection not really going to push that service" GTE spokesman Ed Shelby said people want it available" Other SmartCall services program a telephone to redial busy numbers automatically block calls from certain phone numbers or allow only calls from certain phone numbers to get through GTE plans to offer nine new SmartCall services If foe Public Service Commission approves the company will charge from $2 to $10 a month for each service It also plans to offer a four-feature package for $875 a month and nine features for $1325 a month within 10 days about WDKY He declined to say what the announcement would concern "What's going to happen is going to be very interesting" he said WDKY went on the air in February 1986 and is Lexington's first independent television station It shows Fox Broadcasting Ca programs WDKYs studio is in Lexington even though it is licensed to Danville It broadcasts from a tower in Garrard County Another independent station in Lexington WLKT-TV stopped broadcasting in June because of financial problems (Congratulations I Jessamine Colts Grandfather Clocks good selection at Dealer Cost CC $449 CC minutes from Fayette Mali 2312 NkhoLnville Road NkhnLtvWe SS3-5314 Winter Clearance feature that would make a spatial number appear on the call-tracing unit This number would be different from the caller's actual number If a customer with call-tracing tries to call back using foe special number foe unlisted phone would make a different ringing sound In this way a person with an unlisted number would know that someone with call-tracing was trying to reach him and could decide whether to answer the phone ging But at this point they're not in the Neither Paula Pruett who owns MMC Television Corp in Chicago nor Steve Pruett returned a phone calls yesterday Paula Pruett owns a television station in Pine Bluff Ark and has an ownership interest in a Madison Wis station according to Federal Communications Commission records Backe a former CBS executive said in August that he had tentatively agreed to sell WDKY lie said he decided to sell when his three partners in WDKY lost interest in the television business Backe said yesterday that he would make an announcement at CHADWICK UMIVtSAL State 5 pc Group Headboard Footboard Dresser High Boy Mirror 1499 night stand extra End Tables KFC drops Hot Wings ads as sales soar LOUISVILLE Kentucky Fried Chicken's new Hot Wings have proven too hot to handle The lYpskxi Inc subsidiary is susjx-nding a 2-wn-k-old national television advertising campaign fur the spicy chicken product because sales are running 50 percent above pnijectiims and it nerds time to rebuild its supply Kentucky Fried Chicken could use a lift The chain has Urn a drag in recent nxsiths on earnings from IViisiro'n restaurant division In the fourth quarter that ended Dec 31 iVpsico's restaurant 1 business posted a 9 prrrrat increase in operating profit to $1143 milium Hut while quarterly earnings rose 21 perernt at Hza Hut and 33 fsTcenl at Taco Hell they fell 12 percent at Kentucky Fried Chicken State sets up hotline for poultry farmers FRANKFORT State agriculture officials have established a toll-free hotline fur farmers interested in producing poultry fur processing companies Farmers wanting to raise puiltry can rail (Will) 541 4M01 to obtain information S-abuird Farms last year announced plan to operate a poultry pflirrssinit plant in Graves County Tlir Agriculture Drpartmrnl hrlpid find more titan 100 fanners to produce poultry for the operation The dejwrtmenl is working to lure similar companie to Kentucky and is studying what areas have the nvwt interest in supplying the firm $6995 Mon-Fri9-S Sjt9-4 Closed on Church Dsy.