European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 22, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday february 22, 1992 the stars and stripes b Page 17money matters p t Robert Stempel the chairman of general motors corp., plans a satellite fed message to employees monday and rumours were swirling that he might announce some of Gmys planned Plant closings. The Detroit free press reported Friday that a Michigan Assembly Lant will be spared and that a exas Plant will shut Down As a result of pm Cost cutting. Pm the worlds largest automaker also will report its fourth Quarter and year end 1991 financial results monday and a spokesman left open the possibility that Stempele a comments might go beyond the earnings statement. �?o1 am not going to speculate As to what the chairman is going to talk about in the report to employees a pm spokesman John Mueller said. Such speeches have been held in the past and were not necessarily linked to quarterly financial reports Mueller said. Conversion rates London up fridays rates for the . Dollar to other currencies. Figures Are expressed in dollars to the British Pound other local currencies in dollars Gold was quoted at $352.00 an ounce Silver at $4.12. Feb. 20 feb. 21 British pound.1.75035 1.7453 German mark.1.6550 1.6460 French franc.5.6255 5.6190 dutch guilder.1.8530 1.8622 belgian franc.34.03 33.94 italian lira.1,241.25 1,240.3 Swiss franc.1.4945 1.4950 greek drachma.190.77 189.86 turkish lira.5,788.50 5,787.00 saudi arabian riyal.3.7501 3.7501 Spanish peseta.103.57 103.30 portuguese escudo.142.11 141.52 Canadian dollar.1.1865 1.1836 austrian schilling.11.6570 11.5890 norwegian krone.6.4815 6.4530 danish krone.6.4085 6.3620 these Are commercial rates and can be related Only to the use of foreign currency by . Forces for official business. The Only official rate concerns the Sale of German Marks to . Personnel for personal use and this will be 1.61 through monday based on fridays noontime Price fixing. New York Exchange new York up a York Stock Exchange Stock Glaxo holdings Chrysler corp Rwjr Nabisco hid Hewlett Packard Ford motor co Oak industries general motors Ambar inc genl electric Uniss corp Pepsico inc Teflon d Espana Philip Morns Citicorp Rwjr Nabisco pop the 15 most Active stocks in new composite trading on thursday. Sales last net chg 5.183.500 29 4,550,400 17 4.446.200 10 3,870,300 76 3.225.100 38 3.155.000 2 3.149.500 39 2.985,800 32 2.777.100 80 2.664.600 10 2,530,700 32 2.491.000 32 2.441.600 74 2.232.200 17 2.134.500 10 off up 1 off up 3 up up up up up 2 off up 1 off 2 up up off american Exchange new York american Stock stack Wang labs inc b Alz corp fruit of loom Americus desc us Bio science Weatherford inc Amdahl corp Iva corp magma Copper co go video inc a the 10 most Active stocks in Ange composite trading thursday. Sales last Nelcha. 7,857,100 5 up 846,500 44 up 1 709.900 35 up 2 709,700 10 up 1 610,600 14 off 562,100 4 off 370,300 18 up 1 348.400 35 up 2 337.400 8 off 317.900 4 up 1 Dow Jones new York up Dow Jones closing Range of averages thursday High Low close 30 industrials 3304.34 3224.28 3280.64 20 transport 1471.60 1426.38 1467.68 15 unites 207.75 204.68 206.94 65 stocks 1199.30 1169 33 1192.83 change up 50.32 up 42.79 up 1.44 up 22.02 Kraft joins drive to Cut prices by slashing promotional deals by the new York times Kraft general foods inc., the nations largest food company said thursday that it planned to Cut the prices it charges grocers for some products and reduce spending on promotional campaigns in an Effort to bring consistently lower prices to Consumers. The move follows a similar action by Procter amp Gamble co., which since last fall has Cut prices to grocers on 40 percent of its products. It also slashed spending on coupons and promotional allowances paid to grocers. Among the Procter products affected Are folgers Coffee and Ivory Dis washing soap. Analysts said thursday that the two food companies were responding to growing frustration with the huge level of spending on promotional payments to grocers to recent years. A recent Survey by Nielsen marketing research found that food companies spend nearly 60 percent of their total advertising budgets on Trade promotions. There is a growing concern that promotional spending is an ineffective Way to build Brand loyalty for a product. A there is a tremendous amount of waste in the Way that they have marketed a Walter k. Levy a new York retailing consultant said regarding food companies efforts. Food companies pay a Range of fees to grocers including payments for simply making room for a new product on the shelves. Joseph p. Durrett the senior vice president of sales for Kraft general foods a unit of Philip Morris cos. Inc., called the a change an Experiment that would not affect Many of company a products initially. He said some of the new prices would take effect in several months but he would not identify the products. A we will approach it on a category by category basis a Durrett said. Krafts products include Oscar Mayer and Louis Rich processed meats Kool Aid soft drinks and Kraft cheeses. In the grocery Trade the new pricing strategy is referred to As a everyday Low  some grocers who profit from promotional payments have resisted a amp Gas new pricing Structure and it has been unclear whether a amp a can make the new approach stick. But krafts decision to test a similar program adds More weight to the concept. In the last 10 years food companies have tried with limited Success to wean grocers off such deals. A with Kraft general foods coming its probably going to stick this time a said a food executive at a medium size company who asked not to be identified. Among the fees collected by grocers Are allowances for stocking a company a products. Separate fees arc paid to get a product displayed prominently in a store. Dow hits High a trader on the floor of the new York Stock Exchange keeps a watchful Eye on a Monitor near the close of thursdays activities. The Dow Jones Industrial average hit a closing High amid Hopes for a sustained economic recovery. The Dow Jones average of 30 Blue chips jumped s0j2 Points to 3,280.64, surpassing the previous closing Peak of 3,276.83 it reached on feb. 12. Government reports issued wednesday showed strength in housing starts a traditional signal of the Early stages of a business expansion and continued Low inflation. Coke raises its dividend for 30th time Atlanta up the coca cola  Board voted thursday to raise the quarterly dividend to 28 cents a share from 24 cents and to recommend a 2-for-l Stock split. Coca cola shareholders will vote on the Stock split at their annual meeting april 15. It was the 30th consecutive year in which coca cola increased its dividend. The new quarterly dividend of 28 cents equivalent to an annual rate of $1.12 a share is payable april 1 to shareholders of record March 15. Coca cola gained $2, to $78,125 a share on the new York Stock Exchange on thursday. A a we re pleased with the aggressive 17 percent increase in our quarterly dividend approved by our Board a said Roberto c. Goizueta chairman and chief executive officer. A while rewarding share owners with an increase that a nearly twice the average increase of the last ten heavily in global soft drink opportunities were our operating income return on assets exceeds 45 years it also allows us to reinvest h to cd percent a he said. If shareholders approve the 2-for-1 Stock split which would re Auire an increase in authorized snares coca cola said the additional shares would be distributed around May 11. Earnings soar for Turner broadcasting Atlanta a Turner broadcasting system inc., buoyed by the Success of Atlanta braves and Cable news network on thursday reported sharply higher net income in the fourth Quarter. Tbs said it earned $43.4 million or 16 cents a share in the fourth Quarter. Attiat was up from net income of $7.3 million and a per common share loss because of preferred Stock dividend payments of 3 cents in the same period a year ago. Revenues Rose to $402.4 million up from $357.3 million. The Media and sports company said its 1991 earnings were $85.9 million or 23 cents a share on record revenues of $1.5 billion. For 1990, the company earned $4.6 million net income and had a per share loss of 28 cents on revenues of $1.39 billion. Revenues for 1991 were up in Turner s entertainment news and sports divisions. But the syndication and licensing division suffered a 23 percent drop in revenues largely because of a decrease in video distribution revenues. The sports division earned $2.3 million in 1991, after losing $17 million in 1990. The improvement was attributed to the braves who won the National league Pennant and in october went to the world series. Led by can which won Praise for its coverage of the persian Gulf War and the fall of the soviet Union the Turner news division had operating profits of $167.6 million an increase of 25 percent Over 1990