Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, July 23, 1999
Safeway keeps getting bigger
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Safeway Inc., the third-largest U.S. supermarket chain, agreed today
to buy closely held Randall's Food Markets Inc. for $1.8 billion in
cash, stock and assumed debt to expand into Texas. The Pleasanton,
Calif.-based company would pay $855 million in cash and 10.9 million
shares for the Houston-based firm and take on $375 million in debt.
Safeway, which has 18 stores in Hawaii, including the Pali Highway
outlet, above, recently purchased Dominick's Supermarkets Inc. and
Vons Cos. Safeway and other grocers have been combining to cut
costs and squeeze savings from suppliers as low-priced retailers
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Kmart Corp. sell more groceries. The
acquisition will give Safeway 1,645 stores in 19 states with
estimated annual sales of about $30 billion.
Public relations firm aids Aloha United Way
Aloha United Way said Honolulu-based Communications-Pacific Inc. will donate public relations services to the nonprofit agency through the year 2000. AdWorks will continue donating its advertising services to Aloha United Way through the end of 1999.
Property manager changing its name
BetaWest Ltd., which manages 1.5 million square feet of offices and retail space in Hawaii, will be renamed PM Realty Group on Aug. 2. The name change for the Hawaii operations results from PM Realty Group's purchase of BetaWest in 1995. Houston-based PM Realty has operations in all 50 states. BetaWest developed and manages the Alii Place and City Financial Tower office buildings in downtown Honolulu, as well as other office buildings on Oahu and shopping malls in Waianae and Kona.
NYSE may go public before Thanksgiving
WASHINGTON -- New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso said he expects the world's largest stock market to convert to a publicly traded corporation in November to raise cash to buy an electronic trading network and invest in technology. "I fully expect that you and I, at Thanksgiving, will be looking at the trading of a New York Stock Exchange stock," Grasso said.Grasso said he expects the NYSE to simultaneously sell stock in itself to the exchange's 1,366 members and to the public in an initial public offering on the Big Board itself. The NYSE board is likely on Sept. 2 to approve a conversion of the exchange into a public company, he said.
In other news . . .
HAMPTON, Va. -- Newport News Shipbuilding Inc. and the Steelworkers union reached a tentative agreement today to end the union's 15-week old strike against the nation's only manufacturer of aircraft carriers. A number of steelworkers remain unhappy with the terms of the deal, however, raising questions about whether the members of Steelworkers Local 8888 will vote to ratify it. A vote is likely next week.
