Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, August 25, 1997

Norwest Mortgage forms
venture with local firm

Norwest Mortgage Inc., one of the nation's largest mortgage companies, is forming a joint venture with locally based Home Financial Services.

The new company, Norwest Mortgage of Hawaii, will begin operating by the end of the year, pending approval from the Federal Reserve Board. If approved, it will become one of the largest mortgage companies in Hawaii.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Both Norwest and Home Financial said they plan to retain nearly all of the two companies' 40 local employees.

Des Moines, Iowa-based Norwest Mortgage is a unit of Norwest Corp., which has 750 locations in 50 states. Home Financial is a unit of RESCO, an affiliate of the Prudential Locations Inc., one of Hawaii's largest real estate firms.

Radio company SFX
selling for $2.1 billion

NEW YORK -- Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. will buy SFX Broadcasting Inc. for $2.1 billion in cash and assumed debt to become the nation's third-largest radio broadcaster.

The investment firm's Capstar Broadcasting Corp. will pay $75 for each of SFX's Class A shares, $97.50 for each Class B share held by management and take on $900 million in debt. SFX's 71 stations will give Capstar 314 stations in 79 markets, Bloomberg News reported.

Hicks Muse has been one of the biggest buyers of radio stations since the easing of federal limits on ownership last year. The changes are allowing broadcasters to build clusters of stations that can boost advertising revenue and reduce costs.

New York-based SFX, headed by radio veteran Robert Sillerman, is the seventh-largest radio broadcaster.

The combined Capstar and SFX will rank in revenue only behind Westinghouse Electric Corp. and Chancellor Media Corp., which will be formed when Evergreen Media Corp. and Hicks Muse's Chancellor Broadcasting Co. combine.

Teamsters' Carey
says he won't step down

WASHINGTON -- Teamsters President Ron Carey says he has no plans to step down or disqualify himself from a rerun of the election for the labor union's top job because of investigations into his campaign fund-raising practices.

But opponent James P. Hoffa won a grudging apology from Carey today. "He should apologize . . . today on television and write a letter to every member apologizing for his lack of supervision of his campaign," Hoffa said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

"I'll certainly apologize for not being aware of what went on, but I don't know how anyone would have expected that I would," Carey later said.

Saying he doesn't know how much Carey knew of the questionable fund-raising practices, Hoffa called for a special prosecutor to look into the case.

Carey agreed: "Lets bring in a special prosecutor and look all of this over, I encourage that."

Court-appointed election overseer Barbara Zack Quindel refused last week to certify last December's Teamsters balloting that showed Carey winning re-election. Quindel called for a new contest.