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Friday, Oct. 2, 1998
Mergers mean new names on stock exchange
Combining companies can create confusion about trading price
By MARTY ROSE
Associated PressNEW YORK - Don't panic if your BankAmerica stock seems to have taken a big dive.
The steep decline - the result of a merger with NationsBank, not more market turmoil - is the most recent example of the bustling activity that's been occurring in the stock market.
BankAmerica (listed as BankAm), which had been trading in the $60 range, closed Thursday at $53.68. But don't worry, you haven't taken an added pounding in the declining stock market.
The change occurred Thursday, one day after NationsBank, the aggressive Charlotte, N.C.-based bank completed it's takeover of BankAmerica Corp, and promptly took its name.
As a result, shareholders of the old BankAmerica now have 1.1316 shares of the new company for each share they owned of the old one. That means at Thursday's closing price of just under $54 a share, it would be the equivalent of a price of $60.75 a share for the pre-merger BankAmerica.
Another bank merger and stock-price change will show up in stock tables this weekend, when Banc One Corp will combine with First Chicago NBD Corp. Don't bother looking for the First Chicago listing or Banc One, for that matter.
Instead, the new company will be called Bank One Corp. and will appear in the stock tables as BankOne. If you owned First Chicago at about $64, you will get 1.62 shares of BankOne, trading at about $40.
Two other familiar listings that will disappear this weekend from the New York Stock Exchange listings: U.S. Surgical, which was bought by Tyco International (TycoInt) and H.F. Ahmanson, which was acquired by Washington Mutual, the nation's biggest thrift. Not only will the Ahmanson listing march into oblivion but shareholders will have to look at another table completely - the Nasdaq table - to find the stock of Washington Mutual (WA Mutl).
Later in October, another disappearing act will occur when the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group is expected to take effect. The companies will change their names to Citigroup Inc. (Citigrp) and both the Travelers and the Citicorp listings will no longer appear.
Citigroup will retain the Travelers' price of about $36, while Citicorp stock, which was trading at about $88, will be exchanged for 2.5 shares of the new company.
Other significant changes Thursday on the NYSE, are AccuStaff Inc., a temporary staffing service, based in Jacksonville, Fla., changing its name to Modis Professional Services (ModisProf); RMI Titanium Co., a Niles, Ohio-based producer of lightweight metal products, becoming RTI International Metals Inc. (RTI Intl); and Firstbank Puerto Rico creating a holding company, with a new name of First Bancorp (FtBcpPR).
Another newly created holding company is Idacorp (IdaCorp). The Boise, Idaho-based electric power company was formerly known as Idaho Power.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web