Hanson May Be Planning to Sell Some Businesses : Divestiture: The British-U.S. conglomerate is thinking of shedding non-core operations worth $1 billion, a paper says.

Hanson PLC, the British-U.S. conglomerate, plans to sell non-core businesses that it values at more than $1 billion, according to a published report.

Hanson is considering selling majority stakes in such U.S. businesses as Jacuzzi, the whirlpool bath and hot-tub maker, and Beazer’s U.S. house-building interests, the Financial Times said.

David Clarke, chief executive of Hanson Industries, the company’s North American branch, said the U.S. companies tagged for sale had been packaged into four groups --house building, consumer products, recreation and leisure.

Hanson is likely to keep a small stake in the groups, the newspaper reported.

The sell-off would allow Hanson to concentrate on seven businesses that it would like to expand.

They are Peabody Coal, Cavenham Forest, Beazer USA, Grove Industries and Hanson Office Products in the United States, and Imperial Tobacco and building-products groups, including ARC and London Brick, in Britain.

The U.S. sales would be the first since Hanson’s controversial sale of 52% of Smith Corona, the typewriter manufacturer, for $21 a share in July, 1989. Shortly after the deal, which raised $386 million for Hanson, Smith Corona announced a drop in sales and its share price fell to $5.