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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Wednesday, June 7, 2000

GST shareholders likely to get nothing

WASHINGTON -- GST Telecommunications Inc., which filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws last month, said if its sale of assets to Time Warner Telecom Inc. goes ahead as planned, shareholders most likely will not get anything from that transaction.

Littleton, Colo.-based Time Warner Telecom agreed to buy most of GST's assets, which include telecommunication networks in Western states including Hawaii, for $450 million. The deal needs approval from U.S. Bankruptcy Court. In a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission today, GST said cash from its operations will be enough to fund its operations only to the end of June. The company said, however, if it gets the $50 million in financing that Heller Financial Inc. agreed to grant, it will be able to stay afloat until it completes the sale to Time Warner.

Feds complete sugar bailout

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Agriculture Department bought 132,000 short tons of U.S. sugar for $54.1 million -- the biggest such purchase ever -- in a bailout of the domestic cane and beet sugar industry.

The purchase by the USDA's Commodity Credit Corp. in Kansas City translates to 264 million pounds of refined U.S. cane and beet sugar.

Officials would not identify the sellers. Plans for the bailout were announced last month.

The USDA said further purchases are possible.

U.S. sugar prices fell as much as 25 percent to a record low during the past year because of oversupply, though prices have rallied in recent months on expectations of a bailout.