Business briefs

Web posted Tuesday, November 14, 2000

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From Wire Reports

Oil cartel decision pushes fuel prices up

VIENNA, Austria - OPEC appointed a new leader Monday, Venezuelan oil minister Ali Rodriguez, and dug in against further increases in oil production, lessening chances that heating oil and other energy prices will decline in the coming months.

Ratifying an agreement hammered out Sunday, the 11-nation oil cartel credited itself for boosting output four times this year, but said new production plans were on hold.

The news drove oil prices higher Monday. December futures of light, sweet crude were up 23 cents at $34.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York, while heating oil jumped 0.75 cents to $1.015 per gallon.

Firm finalizes Avis purchase

NEW YORK- Cendant Corp. announced a sweetened $935 million bid for the portion of Avis Group Holdings it does not already own.

The companies announced the deal Monday, three months after Cendant made an initial $750 million bid for the car rental company.

Cendant, which already owns 18 percent of Avis' outstanding common shares in addition to the Avis trademark and Wizard reservation system, will pay $33 a share in cash for the remainder of the business. That represents a 10 percent premium over Avis' closing price Friday and a 25 percent increase over Cendant's previous offer.

Forest companies consider merger

PORTLAND, Ore. - Weyerhaeuser Co. is offering $5.3 billion for Willamette Industries Inc. in a bid to unite two of the largest forest products companies in the Pacific Northwest.

Weyerhaeuser, based in Federal Way, Wash., said Monday it had written a letter dated Nov. 6 proposing to buy all of Portland-based Willamette's outstanding common stock for $48 per share in cash. Willamette also has total debt of about $1.7 billion.

More women climb corporate ladder

NEW YORK - Women are slowly making their way into the corporate ranks at Fortune 500 companies, according to a survey released Monday by a women's advocacy group.

The study by New York-based Catalyst found that 1,622 women are among the 12,945 corporate officers in the nation's 500 largest companies, or 12.5 percent. That's up from 11.9 percent last year and 8.7 percent in 1995.

The figures also show a modest increase in the number of women who run the factories, head the sales staffs and supervise the accounting. There, the number of women rose to 7.3 percent from 5.3 percent in 1997.

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