Laura Ashley Stock Offering Oversubscribed

Stock in the Laura Ashley fashion empire went on sale for the first time Friday, and investors scrambling for shares oversubscribed the initial offering 34 times, the investment bankers handling the offering said.

The Kleinwort Benson banking firm said investors put up about $3 billion for the 46.5 million shares offered at $2 each.

The bank said it would ration allocations, with applicants for small numbers of shares having their names put on a list for a lottery.

Police Called In

One stock dealer immediately offered to buy shares at $2.76. Official trading in the stock on the London Stock Exchange starts Dec. 5.

Mounted police were called in to keep order Thursday as tempers boiled over in the rush to deposit last-minute share applications at a London bank.

The Ashley group, whose founder, Laura Ashley, died in September after falling down a flight of stairs, has grown from a kitchen table workshop into a global business marketing a distinctive old-world style of fashions and furnishings.

About $34 million of the money raised in the share issue will be spent to expand the company.