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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010110
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

NEW YORK - Philip Morris Cos. took major steps Wednesday to strengthen its stock price, raising the shareholder dividend nearly 20 percent and pledging $6 billion to buy back stock over the next three years.

The moves authorized by the board of directors come as the consumer product powerhouse is under pressure from large investors to boost the value of their holdings.

The company appears to have fully recovered from the profit-sapping price war in the U.S. cigarette market last year, but some shareholders say its stock price is still lower than it should be.

Wednesday's announcement gave the stock price a lift but may not have satisfied those pushing for a breakup of the $61 billion (annual sales) conglomerate. Some big investors say Philip Morris' food and international tobacco businesses would be more attractive to investors if the domestic tobacco business and its potential health liabilities were broken off.

Philip Morris said it was raising its quarterly dividend by 19.6 percent to 82 1/2 cents per common share from 69 cents. The new rate is for stockholders of record as of Sept. 15.

- Associated Press

GE to lay off 1,200 in New York

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. - General Electric Co. plans to cut about 1,200 jobs - about one in five employees - from its steam turbine operation here over the next nine months.

The move has prompted GE's biggest union to threaten a strike.

The cutbacks are planned despite the fact that the steam turbine operation is profitable. A company official said cost reductions are needed for GE to price its products to compete with others in the industry.

The move will not affect General Electric's industrial drive systems plant in Salem, said spokesman Michael Allee. "We do not supply turbine controls" to the company's Schenectady plant, he said.

Louis Valenti, business agent for Local 301 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers, said the union's executive board is angry about the number of union members targeted for elimination.

- Albany Times Union

Memo: ***CORRECTION***