Cendant Signs Pact With JM to Build Hotels

Cendant Corp. said it reached an agreement with JM to build 30 hotels as part of the company’s effort to increase ethnic diversity in its lodging business. Wichita, Kan.-based JM plans to use McAfee Manufacturing Co., also based in Wichita, to build the Howard Johnson, Days Inn and Ramada hotels by mid-2003. The first five hotels would be built in and around Wichita and are expected to open by June 1999. Other details weren’t disclosed. Cendant, a direct marketer as well as franchiser, said its diversity initiative is designed to increase opportunities for minorities to get hotel franchises, work in the company’s hotels and become suppliers. McAfee designs, makes and markets factory-built modular homes. The company said it is committed to creating jobs and job-training programs in disadvantaged communities. Shares of Parsippany, N.J.-based Cendant fell 75 cents to close at $14.56 on the NYSE.