ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, November 27, 1996           TAG: 9611270014
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-6  EDITION: METRO 

IN BUSINESS

Bell Atlantic tackles Mexican company

WASHINGTON - Bell Atlantic Corp. on Tuesday announced plans to take over management of a large and troubled cellular-telephone company in Mexico, pump in $200 million in equity and loans, and perhaps assume total ownership over the next three years.

Bell Atlantic already owns 42 percent of Grupo Iusacell SA, a Mexico City-based cellular provider serving about 70 percent of Mexico's population.

But its plans to help the Mexican company expand and modernize have been delayed because of a financial scandal involving Bell Atlantic's Mexican partner in the deal, Grupo Iusacell Vice Chairman Carlos Peralta. By taking control, Bell Atlantic is upping the ante in its investment, hoping to get back on track plans to provide local telephone service in Mexico using wireless radio towers.

Though its ownership shares would remain the same, Bell Atlantic would acquire a controlling interest in the Peralta Series A shares for $50 million. Bell Atlantic also would lend Grupo Iusacell $150 million, to be converted into Series A shares at the U.S. equivalent of $7 per share.

- Washington Post

Briefly

* Roanoke Gas Co. on Tuesday declared a regular quarterly dividend of 26 cents per share of common stock, payable Feb. 1 to shareholders on Jan. 17.

* U.S. financial markets will be closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Roanoke Times will not publish The Daily Market Report or results of commodities trading Friday; regular publication will resume with Saturday's editions. Friday, the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stock Market and American Stock Exchange will close at 1 p.m. and bond trading will end at 2 p.m. The New York Mercantile Exchange and the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange in New York also will be closed Friday, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade will close early and there will be no trading in New York silver and gold options, New York gold futures or platinum contracts.

* The new owner of Avis Rent-A-Car moved Tuesday to sever all ties with a franchise owner in Raleigh, N.C., accused of denying rentals to black customers. Avis and New Hanover Rent-A-Car were named in a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Wilmington by three black women.

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