
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993                   TAG: 9306030505
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                 LENGTH: Short

ALLSTATE OFFERING SPURS FEEDING FRENZY

In the largest initial public offering ever in the United States, investors Wednesday snapped up 78.5 million shares of common stock in the Allstate Corp., the home and automobile insurer.

Priced at $27 a share, the offering raised about $2.1 billion for Sears Roebuck & Co., which is selling 20 percent of its ownership in Allstate to focus on its troubled retail business. The shares will begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Demand for was exceptionally strong - so strong that it attracted the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission staff, which was concerned that some underwriters may have engaged in preliminary "bulling" of the deal, according to sources at the firms involved in the transaction.

"The SEC was on the phone Tuesday complaining that people at the underwriters were talking too much to the press. They wanted to know who talked and they wanted it stopped," said a senior investment banker at one of the underwriters. An SEC spokesman had no comment. - Washington Post

by CNB