THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 14, 1996 TAG: 9606140546
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Business Briefs
LENGTH: 133 lines
Norshipco won two contracts in the past week that will help keep the shipyard's employees busy until October. The Navy awarded the Norfolk shipyard a contract to drydock and repair two high-speed coastal defense ships, the Cyclone and the Tempest. The two special operations ships, homeported at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base, will arrive at the shipyard in July and stay through August. The contract could be worth up to $2 million. The shipyard also won a contract from Carnival Cruise Line to drydock the cruise ships Fantasy and Imagination in September. Norshipco employs nearly 1,900 workers. It has about 250 employees laid off. (Staff) Premier to buy First Commonwealth
Premier Bankshares Corp. said Thursday it will acquire Virginia-based First Commonwealth Bank, exchanging one share of its stock for each First Commonwealth share. Premier did not disclose how many shares privately held First Commonwealth has outstanding. Premier Bankshares stock was down 50 cents, or 3 percent, at $17.25 a share Thursday morning on the Nasdaq Stock Market. First Commonwealth, with offices in Wise and Norton, Va., has about $46 million in assets. Premier Bankshares, of Bluefield, Va., had about $762 million in assets at the end of last year. (Dow Jones News) Smithfield reports fourth-quarter results
Smithfield Foods Inc. said net income for the fiscal 1996 fourth quarter ended April 28 was $7 million, compared with net income of $338,000 for the 1995 fourth quarter. Fourth quarter sales rose to $873.8 million compared with sales of $381.6 million in the 1995 quarter. Sales of John Morrell & Co., which was purchased by the company on Dec. 20, 1995, are included for the 1996 quarter. The company recorded net income of $15.9 million for all of fiscal 1996, compared with net income of $27.8 million in fiscal 1995. Smithfield Foods' corporate offices are in the Dominion Tower in Norfolk. (Staff) Richfood Holdings report record results
Richfood Holdings, Inc., based in Richmond, reported record operating results for its fiscal year ended April 27, 1996. Net earnings for the 52-week period ended April 27, 1996, were $47 million, a 19.9 percent increase over net earnings of $39.2 million for fiscal 1995. Adjusting for the effect of the additional week in the prior year period for Super Rite Corp., net earnings would have increased 20.7 percent. Net earnings, including the effect of the one-time charge and the extraordinary loss, for fiscal 1996 were $37.1 million, or $1.19 per share. (Staff) Dominion Capital forms joint finance venture
Dominion Capital said it formed a joint venture focusing exclusively on financing emerging oil and natural gas companies experiencing significant growth. Cambrian Capital Corporation is the name of the new venture formed by Dominion Capital, the financial services subsidiary of Richmond-based Dominion Resources, Inc. which will hold a 46 percent position. MIECO, the energy trading subsidiary of Tokyo-based Marubeni Corp., which will hold a 46 percent position. Jefferies Group Inc., a Los Angeles-based institutional securities and investment banking firm, which will hold an 8 percent position. Cambrian, based in Houston, will provide structured financings to companies seeking to acquire and develop North American crude oil and natural gas projects. (Staff) Media General to acquire Register Publishing
Media General, based in Richmond, said it will acquire the Register Publishing Company Inc., publisher of the Danville Register & Bee, for approximately $38 million. The stock of Register Publishing Company presently is held by the estate of E. Stuart James Grant. The acquisition is expected to close this summer. The Danville Register & Bee is a morning newspaper with a circulation of 23,000 copies daily and 27,000 on Sunday. (Staff) Aetna could become nation's largest insurer
Aetna Life and Casualty Co. said Thursday it shareholders will vote July 18 on whether to approve its $8.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Healthcare. The deal would create the nation's largest health insurance provider with more than 23 million members, or one in every 12 Americans. It still needs regulatory approval from a number of states. Aetna earlier this year sold its property-casualty insurance lines to Travelers Group for $4 billion, in part to concentrate on expanding its health-care lines. (AP) Cars fuel may retail sales increase
Retailers rang up an 0.8 percent increase in sales in May, the third advance in four months due in part to the return of customers to automobile showrooms. ``Consumer debt is now at a record 20.8 percent of income, and borrowing is slowing,'' economists at Merrill Lynch & Co. told their clients in a faxed analysis. ``Credit-card delinquencies and personal bankruptcies are rising.'' They also said temporary forces that boosted spending in recent months - a boom in mortgage refinancing, capital gains, early tax refunds - are receding. As a result, the Merrill Lynch economists said, ``we expect spending to slow in the second half.'' There are indications that job growth already may be moderating. The Labor Department said Thursday, for instance, that new claims for jobless benefits rose last week for a second week in a row. (AP) Flight attendants, legislators want clean air
Airline flight attendants and members of Congress gathered in the open air of the Capitol lawn Wednesday to complain about something both groups experience regularly - airplane air. Prison inmates get more fresh air than many airline passengers, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who reported that she often suffers headaches and other problems because of limited ventilation during long flights. ``We don't want the public to have to take the risk that every time they go into an airplane they could catch tuberculosis or some other disease,'' added Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y. ``Flight attendants who routinely work in cabins with poor air quality complain of respiratory problems and other health difficulties,'' added Patricia Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. (AP) Mesa Inc. chairman to quit after restructuring
T. Boone Pickens, the often controversial head of Mesa Inc., said he will resign as chairman and chief executive of the natural gas company he founded 40 years ago. Pickens, 67, who gained fame in the 1980s with his hostile takeover bids for oil companies much larger than Mesa, sent a letter to employees Wednesday saying the company is beginning a search for a new chief executive. Pickens's departure will follow a restructuring that includes a capital infusion of as much as $265 million from investor Richard Rainwater. (Bloomberg Business News) Magellan Fund keeps bond position in April
Despite speculation to the contrary, former Fidelity Magellan mutual fund manager Jeffrey Vinik maintained the fund's large position in bonds at least through the end of April. Magellan's 19.2 percent bond allocation on April 30, the most recent accounting date available, was unchanged from the end of March. Vinik, who quit the fund last month, also held 10 percent of the fund's assets in cash, down from 10.1 percent in March. Magellan, the nation's largest mutual fund, has underperformed the market and its mutual-fund peers this year, thanks in part to Vinik's large bet on bonds. Vinik was replaced by Robert Stansky June 3. (Dow Jones News) by CNB