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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 3, 1995                   TAG: 9510030072
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

INTERMET TARGET OF BUYOUT TRY

Intermet Corp., the Detroit-based parent of the Radford Shell Plant and the New River Casting facility, said Monday it is the target of an apparent buyout attempt by a former company chairman.

GWM Inc. of Atlanta and Kelso & Co. of New York on Sunday offered $13.50 per share for Intermet's 25 million outstanding shares of common stock. Intermet's directors met Monday to discuss the offer, but made no announcement by Monday evening.

GWM is owned by George Mathews, former chairman and CEO of Intermet. Mathews took a leave of absence from Intermet for health reasons in August 1994, according to Bernadette McLaughlin, an Intermet spokeswoman in New York. Last October, John Doddridge was elected to fill the position at Mathews' suggestion, she said.

Mathews remained on the board of Intermet as an outside director but held no office in the company, McLaughlin said. He owns 4.6 million shares - or 18.4 percent - of Intermet's common stock. His family's holdings total 5.8 million shares, or 25 percent of the company's stock. The next largest individual investor owns 1.9 percent of the stock. As a group, all other executive officers and directors own 24.1 percent, she said.

Intermet provides precision iron parts to automotive and industrial customers throughout the United States and Canada.

About 280 members of the United Steelworkers union work at Intermet's two Radford facilities. New River Casting employs 500 people; the Radford Shell Plant, 570. No one at the union's local office was available for comment.

In 1993, Intermet closed its Lower Basin facility in Lynchburg. The company still operates one factory in Lynchburg.

Intermet reported second quarter net income of $9.5 million, or 39 cents per share, on sales of $149 million, compared with year-earlier income of $2.4 million, or 10 cents per share, on sales of $124.6 million. The company's stocks closed Monday at $13.12 1/2, up $1.87 1/2, after reaching a high during the trading day of $13.75. The company trades on the Nasdaq stock market.

by CNB