Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995 TAG: 9510190029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Jolting the world of amiable bank mergers, Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco launched a hostile $10.1 billion bid Wednesday for First Interstate Corp. of Los Angeles.
Wells Fargo said it conferred with First Interstate as late as Tuesday night, but First Interstate said it wanted six more months to decide. If successful, the combination would create the nation's seventh-largest banking business.
Wells Fargo proposed to exchange five-eighths of a share of its common stock for each First Interstate share, representing an exchange price of $133.50 a share based on First Interstate's current stock price.
The deal would give Wells Fargo, with $51 billion in assets and operations only in California, an entree into several new markets in the Pacific Northwest and Western states. First Interstate has $55 billion in assets and offices in 13 states.
- Associated Press
N.C. companies rent Roanoke space
Two North Carolina companies have leased facilities for branch offices in the Roanoke Valley. Both transactions were negotiated by Read Lunsford of Hall Associates Inc.
East Coast Metal Distributors of Durham, N.C., has rented a building at 2550 Shenandoah Ave. N.W. for its wholesale supply business to the region's heating and air conditioning contractors. The 22,916 square-foot building, owned by CMC Supply Inc., has showroom and office space that East Coast will offer in a separate lease.
Best Distributing Co. of Roanoke Inc., whose home office is in Goldsboro, N.C., has leased the former Sears, Roebuck & Co. warehouse at 1735 Plantation Road N.E. Best, which acquired the former Roofers Mart of Virginia stores in Roanoke and Richmond, is a wholesale supplier of roofing, insulation and heating and air conditioning materials. The building, owned by Blue Eagle Partnership, contains 42,350 square feet. .
- Staff report
Women's fitness chain opens gym
Cory Everson's Aerobics and Fitness for Women has opened a 10,700-square-foot fitness center at 4108 Electric Road in the former Gold's Gym building. The club, for women only, has more than 800 members.
Cory Everson, a six-time Ms. Olympia bodybuilder who hosts a television show on ESPN, started the chain last fall and has 15 clubs nationwide. This is her first facility in Virginia. The franchise is owned by William Bailey Jr., Blake Collins and R.B. Firestone Jr.
- Staff report
New steel dividend
Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. on Wednesday declared a cash dividend on its common stock of 11 cents per share, payable Nov. 22 to shareholders on Nov. 7, a 22.2 per cent increase over the previous dividend rate and the second increase in six months.
by CNB