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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995                   TAG: 9506160019
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

NEW YORK - The one-time quintessential conglomerate, ITT Corp., will divide itself into three parts in one of the biggest corporate restructurings ever after flirting with the idea for more than two years.

ITT said Tuesday its board has approved management's plan to split its $25 billion business empire into three independent companies - insurance, industrial products and hotels/entertainment. The company operates a night vision products plant and a gallium arsenide technology center in Roanoke County.

Shareholders, who would get a share in each new company for each ITT share they own, will vote on the plan this fall. But the early reaction on Wall Street was positive. ITT common stock closed at $115.50 a share Tuesday, up $6.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The company said the breakup would give its managers more flexibility in running their businesses and getting access to capital, while creating higher share value for stock owners.

- Associated Press

Briefly ...

Long John Silver's, the quick-service seafood restaurant chain, has opened an outlet in Wal-Mart Plaza on East Main Street, Bedford. The manager is Adriane Broady, who ran the Long John Silver's in Altavista. The restaurant employs 40 people.

nAutomated Mailing Systems Inc. of Roanoke has opened a branch in Charlottesville to serve customers in the Shenandoah Valley. The company provides lettershop and presort mailing services and sells and services Ascom Hasler and Rena mailing, shipping and addressing equipment.

Rollins Leasing Corp., a national leaser of commercial vehicles, has opened a $3.5 million facility in Intervale Industrial Park, Salem. The company has been in Statesman Industrial Park since 1991.

Hanover Direct Inc., Weehawken, N.J., mail-order merchant operating warehouses for its Tweeds and Domestications catalogs in Botetourt and Roanoke counties, said it has paid $4 million for a 67.5 percent interest of The Austad Co. of Sioux Falls, S.D., publisher of the Austad's catalog featuring golf equipment and apparel.

Wayne Sterling, director of the Virginia Department of Economic Development, will become chairman of the American Economic Development Council for a one-year term in April 1996, state officials said. The Chicago-based council is the largest and oldest international society for economic developers.