OTHER NEWS - March 4, 1995

Bidding Heats Up for National Gypsum: Let the bidding war for National Gypsum Co. commence. That’s the message its board of directors gave when it rejected as inadequate a $1.1-billion buyout offer from BPB Industries, Europe’s leading wallboard producer, and authorized management to consider other offers, analysts said. At least three suitors are being mentioned, including BPB, France’s Lafarge Coppee and Delcor Inc., a North Carolina investment firm whose two previous bids for the company were rebuffed. National Gypsum closed up 56.25 cents to $50.813 on the Nasdaq.