Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 49

93 She (Dnklanb Sribunc No pretty picture Streamlining Eastman Kodak cutting 2000 jobs D-10: PagoD-9 Wednesday: January 20 1993 l-l 1 X'v JDOW30 1UZ1D 32559 jjawJmdmlMlMAMngt ri'Df Back in the Black Many liig banking companies Bank rebounds from $231 million quarterly loss with gain of $58 million By Tim STAFF WRITER were encouraged by the quarterly profits and year-end profits of $283 million But they stopped short of saying the San Franclsco-based bank strapped with poor real estate loans Is out of the woods yet only one quarter and they still have a lot of commercial real estate that's sticky" said Donald Crowley an independent East Bay bank consultant going to take per share In 1991 Analysts were pleasantly surprised that the bank's troubled loans appear to be on the decline The bank's loan loss reserve money set aside for loans going bad decreased to $300 million In the fourth quarter That compares to $400 million In the third quarter and $700 million for the fourth quarter of 1 99 1 The bank will retrain cautious about future concerning the amount Torioafr? losses because "the California economy par-' tlcularly that of Southern California con tinues to decline" said Carl ERelchardt chairman and chief executive officer of Wells 3 A year after drastically cutting its dividend the Wells board of directors declared a quar- teriydlvldendofSOcentspershare to fashion a turnaround Wells Fargo ft Co said Tuesday that Its fourth1 tuarter profifasdaredto $58 millloncompared to a loss of $231 million ayear ago The news pushed the stock up $13 a share to $99 on Wall Sheet and coincided with strong earnings reports from several large US banks indicating a recovery of the Industry may be underway '-t -c "I' Wells Fargoofficlals and bank analysts 'fv i-T Nevertheless Wells signs of improvement Per share earning! for the fourth quarter were 83 cents compared with a loss of $459 In the same quarter last year Year-end earnings for 1992 were $283 million or $444 per share compared with $21 million or 4 cents significant 3: TJ 1-1 1 1 1 IftSQQ) Struggling company surpasses GM for worst performance in corporate history ASSOCUTH) NEW YORK on Tuesday announced the vyorat financial performance In US corporate hla-' tory including a loss of nearly $5 billion for 1992 and forecast more bleak times during a far-reaching restructuring The financial disaster at the pioneering computer company featured doubledigit sales declines of core products and a quarterly loss from regular operations IBM's first ever In the last three months of the year International 1 Business Machine Corp's net losses of $5146 billion for the fourth quarter and $497 billion for the year eclipsed earlier losses at Amblcan Telephone ft Telegraph Co and General Motors Corp Without a $19 billion benefit from accounting rules changes IBM would have lost $687 billion last year The big blues at 79yearold Big Blue are staggering: IBM's sales fell for an Unprecedented second lack of business forces some residents into the drug trade pGOLD Naw York bulon far cumntdiiniv SDVER NwvVMctaN DAIIY TICKER Markets Blue chips sal off: A late round of selling pushed bluechip stock prices lower Advancing Issues beat declines by about 12 to lion the New York Stock Exchange Big Board volume came to an estl- 3 mated 283 11 million shares against 19598 million The NASDAQ composite slipped 132 to 69681 The 500 fell 171 to 435 13 The NYSE Composite dropped 067 to 23966 In New York the dollar fetched 1 2550 yen down from 1 2555 yen Automobiles Pickup trouble: The former chairman of General Motors Corp Robert Stempel acknowledged In an Atlanta trial that some of the company's -pickups were more likely than -competitors' models to catch fire In side collisions But Stempel Insisted that the vehicles were safe His testimony came In the trial of a lawsuit brought by the parents of Shannon Moseley a youth who was killed in 1989 when his 1985 GMC pickup was struck In the side and exploded Into fiames Profit! protected: Chrysler Corp projected fourth quarter 1992 earnings of more than $300 million placing the automaker In the black for the third consecutive quarter and for the year The projections were announced In a prospectus Issued for the sale of 40 million shares of common stock High hopes: Domestic automakers are building 237 percent more cars and trucks this winter than ayear ago seemingly confident the longawalted recovery of their Industry Is here Companies ITT trims business: rrr Corp plans to scale back Its consumer loan business saylngltwlll shut 200 offices and eliminate 1400 Jobs by the end of 1993 ITT Is the latest In a series of large corporations that have announced mryor shakeups In their financial ser- vices businesses ITT Finance-' Corp of St Louis MOnthe corporation's finance company subsidiary Is staghig a retreat from the unsecured consumer loan business due to the recession and an Increase In personal bankruptcy filings Economy Super Support The Bundesbank central bank 1 spent the equivalent of $687 bit lion Intervening to support other European currencies dining tur- bulent 1992 All the Intervention support occurred In the second halfof 1992 and at the peak of turbulence In September the 1 outlay was $224 billion In one day The amount of intervention was unprecedented In earlier cur- rency crises reflecting a bigger and faster-moving market Meanwhile fGroeit' skyscraper The air con1 dltlonlng system of a Houston skyscraper became the world's first to be fully converted to use environmentally acceptlble refrigerants The 52HStory Texaco Heritage Plaza had been using a i refrigerant known as CPC-1 1' which will be banned later this decade under a US Clean Air Act provision Renovations have converted the building three chilling units to use HCFC-123 considered 20 times less harmful to the ozone layer Esrtarof IMIto ring tha latest quarter Pref itekmas in mlliona 19SZ 1SJ1 (133) mu- 135 Chase Manhattan Wells Fargo 58 (2311 sSn straight year while Job cuts to- taled 40000 and will reach nearly 100000 over three years by the end of 1993 -j? j- IBM's stock extended declines that have dragged It from above $100 a share last summer to' levels unseen since 1975 IBM fell $112 to $487 In heavy New York Stock Exchange trading of more than 5 million shares financial results are not acceptable to us or our share-holdera" IBM Chalrman John Akers said In a statement "We are taking tions to Improve our competitiveness "and profitability by addressing the accelerating changes that are sweeping our ln-' dustry while adjusting for weak-ened business conditions throughout the world" The annual loss exceeds a $445 billion decline in 1991 at GM For the quarter IBM's loss Is greater than a $487 billion loss In the fourth quarter of 1983 IBM based In Armonk NY did not comment on the fate of Its $484-per-share dividend which will be on the agenda at a Jan 26 board meeting- V-1 Akers last month said the dividend might be cut ao-: 1 tsds I strike would affect most areas of the Joint venture? of Toyota Motor Corp and General Motors which makes Toyota Corolla and Geo Prlzm sedans and Toyota light pickup trucks But assembly operations should not be affected a plant spokesman said 1 The primary Issue la wages Janitors are sepkffig a thltee-year contract wtttfralses of 75 cents each year the ABM contract re jected by workers was for four years with raises of 34 cents each of the first three years and 40 cents in the fourth Janitors also are dlsputlng the -company's benefits offer which -they said would leave them paying $24 more per month after a rise In medical costs The workers whd make $875 an hour have been without a contract since DeerS 1 contends that If banks and the city don't work to Infuse millions of dollars the area Is facing Imminent explosion akin to the Rodney King riots In South Central Los Angeles In the meantime Whitehead argues that the lack of business forces some residents youths in particular Into the drug trade for a living and simply for the lack of any other options have whole communities of black and brown people with nothing to look forward RONMBTERBI-'tI said Whitehead a longtime activist who sits on Oakland's Fair Share Task Force "They're the ones who are going to tear down the community" Others In the city and the lending community may not agree with Whitehead's prediction of open revolt but they concur widely thie community Is starved for capital Even Wells FSrgo Bank which Is criticized In the report for its lack of presence In East Oakland acknowl- edged that It has not made enough of an effort The communities of central East Oakland and Elmhurst which the report focuses on have roughly 1 13000 residents The per capltal Income In those areas Is $12000 compared to $24000 for the neighboring affluent and predominantly white Diamond District In 1990 while thecltyof Oak-1 land had a 62 Jobless rate Cen- Ptosssass pageD-13 RON i construction on the permanent building to catch up with the city of Emeryville which plans to open Its own Amtrak station this June -Evans Brothers has until March 3 to complete demolishing the port-owned warehouses Setwyn Whitehead says that Study's author says absence has fuded drug trade crime and unemployment By Matt Kchtal STAFF WRITER OAKLAND The systematic withdrawal of banks and lending Institutions has crippled East fat- terlng economy and fueled the deadly drug trade according to -a new white paper With 30 percent of Oakland's population East Oakland has only two of the roughly 85 bank branches Their absence has sparked a chain reaction In 1 which residents are unable to borrow to build homes and businesses creating rising unemployment crime and a growing underground economy according to the study's author Selwyn Whitehead The East Oakland resident Crewbegins clearing way for Amtrak station By Benny STAFF WRITER Livermore demolition company began bulldozing an old newspaper warehouse Tuesday to make way for new Am-: trak passenger train station at Jack London Square Evans Brothers Inc of Livermore was awarded a $184350 contract by the Port of Oakland to knock down a total of three unused warehouses on the site of a new $16 million Jack London Rail Station scheduled to open In December The port last month decided to bypass the agency's normal bid procedures and negotiate directly on a demolition contract to speed up the construction timetable of iheplanned 20000square-foot station at Embarcadero and Alice ABM-employed janitors STAFF WRITBI FREMONT Janitors who work at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc auto plant here rejected their employer's latest contract offer Tuesday clearing the way for a strike as early as Thursday The 150 Janitors work for American Building Maintenance Inc the largest of two Janitorial contractors serving the FYemont factory Eleventh-hour talks are scheduled for Thursday between ABM and the Serviced Employees International Union Local 1877 said local president Mike Garcia Bruce Wagner assistant regional manager at office in San Ramon declined comment Garcia said the union probably Evans Brothers bulldozes a newspaper warehouse in Oakland Originally the port planned to have an interim station to replace the dilapidated facility at 16th and Wood streets ready by July with a permanent station to open one -year later But the port scrapped the Interim statlonplan and speeded up 3 'Hof theAlnmeda Newspaper Group Street Tk dr 4.