The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 16

The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. Saturday, June 10, 1989 Page B8 LJ LJ lJ STOCK TABLES HOT NUMBERS TUAL FUNDS First Federal to cloe 2 locations Dow Jones Industrial Avg. NYSE volume (in millions) 2550 2500 II 2350 2300 higher interest rates on some accounts, and a free gift-boxed pen "for just stopping in," Sacks said. "First Federal is on a course of being the most competitive and innovative bank in Delaware," Sacks said. "You have probably noticed over the past two months that our deposit interest rates are among the highest in the Wilmington marketplace." One customer said it would mean a major inconvenience to use the new branch, but planned to use such services as direct deposit, automated teller machines and telephone transfers, rather than switch banks.

First Federal decided to close the branches after a three-month study showed the two Ma 26 30 31 2 5 6 7 8 9 Ma 26 30 31 1 2 5 6 7 8 9 High 2,533.64 Volume 173,240,000 Low 2,494.85 National 207,180,000 Close 2,513.42 Advances 759 Change 3.49 Declines 773 Standard Poor's 500 326.69 40.06 vestment that First Federal is making to become the number one bank in Delaware in terms of servicing the customer," he said. "We will now be able to pass these benefits of automation to the First Federal customer through higher quality service and more attractive rates on deposit and loan products." The new computer system is being tested prior to a July 29 conversion, while the branches will close June 30. Sacks, who took over as president in March, said the bank plans to concentrate on service customers who are over 50 and have long been First Federal's customers. smallest branches overlapped with four other, larger First Federal branches, Sacks said. Talleyville customers are being asked to use the Branmar Plaza Branch at Marsh and Sil-berside roads or the Fairfax Shopping Center office at 2301 Concord Pike.

Brewster Drive customers will transfer to the Newark branch at Main Street and Tyre Avenue or the Mill Creek Office at 3812 Kirkwood Highway. The Brewster Drive ATM will remain open. The savings bank promised other services by cutting unnecessary costs and working-through a new IBM computer system being installed in branches, which Sachs said will increase service levels. "This system is a major in By MARCIA MING Staff reporter First Federal Savings Bank announced this week it plans to close two more branches its Talleyville and Brewster Drive locations. But the savings bank, which is streamlining its branch locations under new leadership, took an unusual step to try to keep its customers while shifting their business.

Affected customers received a letter from First Federal President Steven E. Sacks, offering them a deal he hoped they wouldn't refuse. For example, Brewster Drive customers who come into the Newark branch between July and September can earn free personalized checks for a year. WEEK ENDS WITH SETBACK: The stock market suffered a small setback Friday, faced with news of a bigger-than-expected increase in producer prices. Analysts said the news dampened hopes that the Federal Reserve would continue what had looked like a move to relax credit policy.

Star States Corp. offers again to complete merger rmft' --5 -j i it" OV' v-A! Lf a it Nil'" I I r. V.1. 't By MARCIA MING Staff reporter Star States Corp. said Friday it has made a final offer to pay $13.50 a share for all outstanding shares of Diversified Investment Group Inc.

Star States is the holding company for Wilmington Savings Fund Society. Diversified owns Fidelity Federal Savings Loan Association of Philadelphia. The two companies agreed to merge last August, but Diversified's earnings started to slip. In May, Star States demanded that the Philadelphia thrift renegotiate the deal or forget about the merger. Diversified responded with a lawsuit, aimed at forcing the merger under the original terms.

Last August, Star States agreed to pay $28.8 million, or $16.10 a share for Diversified's outstanding stock. After the Philadelphia company reported substantially lower earnings in successive periods, Star States tried to renegotiate the deal, offering to pay only $12 a share. The Philadelphia thrift's first quarter earnings fell 26.6 percent to $275,125 or 16 cents a share, from $375,000, or 21 cents a share for the same quarter of 1988. Diversified blamed the decrease on office and equipment expenses for its new headquarters and on legal and accounting expenses related to the merger. Friday's offer represented an increase from the second offer, but it is "contingent upon certain economic concessions and the negotiation of an amended definitive agreement.

Any new deal would also need the approval of regulators and the directors and stockholders of Diversified. Diversified has yet to respond to the new offer. The original agreement between Star States and Diversified has a termination date of June 15. That agreement still has not received regulatory approval from the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, which has jurisdiction over the two companies. The News JournalM.

JAMES KAWANISHI Business agent Edward Brady is ready to help plumbing apprentices working at the Christina Gateway Building. Building unions get push State Trades Council stresses educational offerings GLOBAL TRADING: The National Association of Securities Dealers plans to begin trading 200 to 300 over-the-counter stocks at 4 a.m. Eastern time, with some of the trading directly competing with the London Stock Exchange. The pre-dawn trading is expected to begin in the first quarter of 1990. Among the issues slated for pre-dawn trading are all 97 European stocks listed on the NASDAQ computerized exchange, including Jaguar PLC, Cad-bury Schweppes PLC and Volvo AB, and such U.S stocks as Apple Computer Intel Corp.

and MCI Communications Corp. BOEING SALES: Ethiopian Airlines has ordered four Boeing 757 passenger jets and one 757 freighter in a deal valued at about $260 million. The airline will use them mainly to replace 727 jetliners on regional routes, but the planes also will be equipped for long-range operations. The new order brings to 564 the total number of 757s ordered from Boeing. Great China Airlines separately announced the purchase of four Dash 8 Series 300 planes from Boeing Canada's de Havilland division.

The deal is valued at about $52 million. MERGER HALT SOUGHT: Lawyers for Para mount Communications Inc. asked Delaware's Chancery Court Friday to prohibit Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. from implementing provisions of their merger agreement that could thwart Paramount's $10.7 billion buyout bid for Time.

Judge William P. Allen reserved decision. Paramount sued in Delaware where Time is incorporated after its $175-a-share cash bid earlier this week. MOVIES TO GO: Baltimore residents can now have all the amenities of a movie theater delivered to their home, thanks to two enterprising video rental store owners. Capitol Video Sales and Door-to-Door, which delivers popcorn, candy and soda as well as videocas-settes, was launched in Washington May 18 and plans to begin serving Baltimore in August.

Cinematheque, a Baltimore-based video store, began offering its own video delivery service a few months ago with good response. MYLAN CHARGES BRIBERY: Mylan Laboratories Inc. has filed suit against four of its competitors, alleging they damaged its business by bribing federal officials for preferential treatment in the generic drug business. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., claimed the competitors violated federal antitrust and racketeering laws resulting in about $200 million in damage.

The suit comes in the wake of a Food and Drug Administration investigation and the filing of criminal indictments last month against two FDA officials and two pharmaceutical company executives. PRU-BACHE RESTRUCTURE: Prudential Bache Securities Inc. is reorganizing its investment and merchant banking operations in an effort to enhance client service and increase the firm's competitive clout. The reorganization involves changes in the chain of command and will affect less than a quarter of the 2,000 employees in Prudential-Bache's institutional investment and merchant banking arm, the company said. No employees in the division, called Prudential-Bache Capital Funding, are to be laid off or required to make significant relocations.

1 members and four employers. The inclusion of employers on the committee has put a stop to the old problem of friends and relatives of tradesmen being the only ones to be admitted as apprentices. "The employers only want to know if the kid can do the job," Brady said. And so, he said, graduates of vocational-technical school plumbing and pipefitting programs are likely to get preference because the employers know they will be more productive on the job from the start. It takes 10,000 hours on the job and 1,080 hours in the classroom to become a certified journeyman plumber and pipefitter.

Classes are held twice a week and are taught by union members trained at Purdue University. Brady said the plumbing and pipefitting trades, once separated, are merged now, with the apprentices getting some specialized training in the area of his choice, starting in the third year. Plumbers work with water supply and drains. Pipefitters work with heating and air-conditioning systems. Every six months an apprentice is evaluated by his foreman or a construction superintendent.

If the evaluation is satisfactory, the apprentice gets his contracted raise. Brady said raises are scheduled and guaranteed, compared to non-union programs in which raises may have to be fought for. Under the present contract, an apprentice earns $6.44 an hour in the first six months. The pay increases each half year, to $16.09 an hour in the final six months of the apprenticeship. Journeymen earn $21.45 an hour on industrial jobs powerhouses, factories or chemical plants and $18.23 an hour for commercial jobs shopping malls, hotels or hospitals.

By BOBBAUERS Staff reporter If you want a career as a plumber, you ought to be a union plumber or be a union person in any of the building-trade specialties, such as bricklayer, ironworker or electrician. That's the message the Delaware Building Trades Council, an umbrella group for 20 trade unions, is trying to deliver. The drive is an effort to combat the dominance of non-union contractors, boost interest in trade unionism and enhance the trade union image. And one of the weapons the council is using in its fight is the education member unions provide. "Our apprenticeship programs are a big selling point," said Richard Crawford, council president.

"Our graduate apprentices can go anywhere in the country." Typical is the five-year apprenticeship program offered by the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 74, a union with 850 members. The program is competitive, free and guarantees apprentices work, wages, wage increases and benefits. Edward Brady, business agent for Local 74, said 68 young men applied to enter the apprenticeship program this spring. Ten to 15 will be chosen. Applicants must have a high school diploma or the equivalent.

Brady said many apply after having worked as plumbers' helpers for non-union firms. The local at one time granted those people credit for time worked, but has stopped that practice because those people had gaps in their knowledge, Brady said. The apprentice applicants undergo interviews and are then ranked by a committee of four union by Harold ClouserMerrlll Lynch IBM 108 ICI Americas 78 James River 31 Lomas Bank USA 10 Lukenslnc 26 Maryland Bank 52 Manufac, Hanover 37 Matlack 8 Mellon Bank 34 Merrill Lynch 31 Meridian Bancorp 24 Morgan Guaranty 41 Occidental 28 Olin (Sunolin) 58 Philip Morris 141 PNC Financial 48 PPG Industries 45 RLC 9 Rollins Environ 11 Seagram 77 1 Sears 47 Second Nat (bid) 6 Star States 9 Strawbridge 39 Sun Co 42 Sussex Trust (bid) 38 Telecommunications ...36 Texaco 49 Unilever 35 Roy F.Weston 13 Westvaco 30 Wilmington Trust (last) ..38 Closing prices for June 9, compiled Close Chg. Advanta 8 AIG 86 Air Products 43 -V, Allied Signal 34 36 Atlantic Fed. Savings 9'A Avon 3629 -1 Barclay's Bank 29 Bell Atlantic 96 -1 Beneficial 54 Campbell Soup 44 Chase Manhattan 39 Chemical Bank 36 Chesapeake Utilities 12 Chrysler 25Ja 1 Citicorp 33 Columbia Gas 44 Conrail 36 Container Corp 27 CoreStates 47 CSX 34 Delmarva Power 19 DESB 8 DuPont 110 Forum (Retire.

Liv.) 2 Gannett 45 General Motors 41 Georgia Gull 36 Harleysville Group 21 Hercules 48 -'a Hewlett Packard 54 Himont 39 1 GOOD NEWSBAD NEWS BANK OF DELAWARE CLOSING PRICES FOR JUNE 9, 1989 Bid Offer Change Singer chairman Bilzerian convicted Gold Spot $357.40 $357.90 Canadian Maple Leaf $366.34 $370.43 American Eagle $366.34 $370.43 Chinese Panda $375.40 $378.10 1-ouncebar $360.15 $363.90 Kilo $358 65 $360.15 Silver Spot $5.17 $5.19 American Eagle $5.67 $6.49 100-ounce bar $5.32 $5.54 1000-ounce bar $5.07 $5.24 Platinum Spot $484.50 $486.50 1-ounce bar $481.00 $491.50 10-ouncebar 481.00 $491.50 Noble $484.00 $496.50 Maple $503.00 $511.50 Palladium Spot $147.75 $148.75 1-ounce bar $154.75 $163.75 pnrssat b'(0 ments in connection with three failed takeover attempts and another stock transaction in 1985 and 1986. He faces a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines. Bilzerian was freed on $250,000 bond pending sentencing Aug. 16. Bilzerian's attorney, Arthur F.

Mathews, said he will appeal the verdict. Originally indicted on 12 counts, Bilzerian got one count dismissed in April and U.S. District Judge Robert Ward combined four conspiracies into two counts on Wednesday. The government said Bilzerian made millions of dollars by accumulating stock in takeover targets while concealing ownership of the stocks in secret accounts and then selling his holdings after the stock price had risen. By JOHN M.DOYLE Associated Press NEW YORK Singer Co.

Chairman Paul A. Bilzerian was convicted Friday of nine counts of securities fraud and tax violation in the first jury verdict in the government's three-year crackdown on Wall Street securities crime. The panel of six men and six women returned its decision on the second day of deliberations. The Bilzerian case was the first prosecution of a corporate raider using information derived from the Ivan Boesky insider trading scandal that broke in 1986. Bilzerian, 38, a Tampa, investor who won control of Singer last year, was charged with breaking securities and tax laws and making false state Foreign currency By HENRY MARTIN "Will you please have Mr.

Wider and Mr. Burke come to my office when they've finished their gin game, and Ms. Pelton when she's finished doing her nails, and Mr. Johnson when he's finished his crossword." Swiss Franc British Pound Canadian Dollar French Franc German Mark Japanese Yen Italian Lira 1.800 1.480 1.260 7.140 1.984 151.00 1666.00 1.590 1.680 1.120 6.250 1.745 13100 1333.33 unch unch unch unch unch unch unch Pound is quoted in dollarspounds..