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

DATE: THURSDAY, June 22, 1995                   TAG: 9506220072
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

FERGUSON, ANDREWS SELLS ANOTHER BRANCH

Davenport & Co. of Virginia Inc., a Richmond-based brokerage house, said Wednesday that it had purchased the Ferguson, Andrews office on Main Street in Lynchburg. It began operating under the Davenport name Wednesday. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

That is the second Ferguson, Andrews office to be sold recently. J.C. Bradford & Co. of Nashville, Tenn., purchased the company's Bristol operations last week. Ferguson, Andrews previously closed its offices in Richmond, Charlottesville and Northern Virginia.

That leaves only the Roanoke office left out of what was once a six-branch network, and rumors have circulated in the brokerage community for the past two weeks that it, too, would close. Neither T. Michael Smith, president of the securities brokerage, nor Forrest Miles, manager of the Roanoke office, was available for comment Wednesday.

Davenport said it hired eight investment executive and office personnel from the Ferguson, Andrews operation in Lynchburg.

Coleman Wortham III, Davenport's chief executive officer, said "having an office in Lynchburg has been part of our strategic expansion plans for some time. The opportunity to purchase this office and retain its management and key investment executives was perfect for us."

But he said Davenport "is not negotiating for the Roanoke office at this time." James C. Bradford Jr. of J.C. Bradford had said previously he wouldn't purchase the Ferguson, Andrews Roanoke office. The Bradford company already has an office in Roanoke.