Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 27, 1993 TAG: 9308270339
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina's state Budget and Control Board gave Gov. Carroll Campbell broader powers to negotiate with industrial prospects Thursday - a move that could help South Carolina land a $300 million Mercedes-Benz auto assembly plant.
Campbell said he can now make certain promises and know he'll have the backing of the board. He did not elaborate.
Published reports said state government officials are talking again this week with Mercedes officials about a 1,200-acre site near Summerville for a new assembly plant that would employ 1,500.
Mercedes also reportedly has interest in sites in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. The Virginia site, in Warren County, is very much in the running, said a spokesman for Gov. Douglas Wilder. - Associated Press
\ Reynolds to buy Miller's 5 can plants
RICHMOND - Reynolds Metals Co. has agreed to buy Miller Brewing Co.'s five beverage-can plants for an undisclosed amount, the companies said Thursday.
Richmond-based Reynolds anticipates the transaction will increase its U.S. aluminum can capacity by more than 45 percent, making it the third-largest producer in that industry, Reynolds spokesman Drew Lynbrook said. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.
Miller is shedding its can-manufacturing business to focus on brewing beer.
The plants, which make cans and can ends, are in Milwaukee, Wis.; Fulton, N.Y.; Fort Worth, Texas; Reidsville, N.C.; and Moultrie, Ga. - Associated Press
\ Spying charges spur search of VW offices
WOLFSBURG, Germany - Police and prosecutors searched Volkswagen headquarters Thursday in an intensified probe of possible corporate spying on General Motors Corp., and offered to share their information with U.S. law enforcers.
Authorities ranged through VW's offices most of the day, seeking evidence against cost-cutting whiz Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, lured by Volkswagen from GM in March. The U.S. Justice Department is looking into the claims of theft of GM documents.
Darmstadt prosecutor's spokesman Georg Nauth said his office was ready to share information with U.S. investigators, if that would help their probe.
Nauth said seven other locations, including homes of VW employees, also were searched Thursday.
He said VW's computers also were being searched. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel said some allegedly stolen data were entered into VW's computers.
VW said in a statement it "welcomes the progress" in the probe and "will support the investigation with all the means at our disposal." - Associated Press
by CNB