Great Western Financial Corp. plans to acquire...

Great Western Financial Corp. plans to acquire Southern Home Savings Bank of Pensacola, Fla., for about $25 million, the two companies announced . . . Wickes Cos. said a newly formed subsidiary, Wickes-Homecrafters Inc., has completed the acquisition of Homecrafters Warehouse, a Southeastern retailer . . . A shareholder group led by New York financier Robert Toussie, which owns 9.2% of the Heck’s Inc. discount department store chain in the Mid-Atlantic, said it has proposed a $144-million takeover of the company . . . Continental Airlines reorted that its August traffic was up more than 26% to 2.2 billion revenue passenger miles, the highest traffic month in the company’s 52-year history.