Olivetti Mulls Dividend, Nasdaq

Olivetti SpA shareholders, who haven’t had a dividend since 1991, may get a taste of profit this year when an office products unit is sold in an initial public offering, Chairman Carlo De Benedetti said.

De Benedetti hinted to shareholders at the Italian company’s annual meeting Friday that they may get stock in the Lexikon unit in order to “enable them to participate in this financial operation.”

Olivetti, whose North American subsidiary is based in Spokane, expects to sell 40 percent of the company in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Shares also may be sold on the Italian exchange, De Benedetti said.

Olivetti plans to keep at least 51 percent of the company, De Benedetti said. He wouldn’t say anything about the price except that Olivetti would make a “significant” gain on the sale.

The investment bank CS First Boston is evaluating ways of “allowing Olivetti shareholders to participate,” in the IPO, said De Benedetti, the Ivrea-based company’s largest shareholder. He was responding to a question about whether shareholders would be allowed to take part in some of Olivetti’s more profitable businesses.

Olivetti has lost money five years in a row, last paid a dividend in 1991, and twice asked investors for fresh since 1993.

Olivetti’s losses are due to its personal computer division, which has been battered by a Europe-wide price war and its own high costs in relation to companies that make their products in the United States and East Asia. De Benedetti said steps taken by the Italian information technology company to lower costs in 1995 were “not sufficient.” Expenses fell to 17 percent of total sales in 1995, down from 20 percent, and needed to fall further, he said.

Olivetti is in the midst of a “transformation” from focusing on computers and office products to telecommunications services, De Benedetti said.

Stocks that traded heavily or moved substantially Friday.

NYSE

Aluminum Co. of America, up 1-1/4 at 65-7/8.

The company said it plans to buy back up to 20 million of its common shares. Alcoa said the buyback will replenish an earlier program approved in 1989, under which the company has bought 15 million shares. Alcoa now has about 175.6 million shares outstanding, so the new buyback would represent about 11.4 percent of its outstanding stock.

American Home Products, up 1-1/8 at 51-7/8.

The company received FDA approval Thursday evening to sell a non-prescription version of its Axid heartburn drug. Axid AR joins Pepcid AC, Tagamet HB and Zantac 75 as consumer heartburn drugs.

Nokia American depositary shares, down 1-3/8 at 35-3/4.

The Finnish telecommunications group reported Thursday evening a 30 percent drop in its first-quarter pretax profit, blaming losses in its mobile phones business. The first-quarter profit totaled 399 million markkaa ($85 million), down from 1.35 billion markkaa in the same period last year.

NASDAQ

Cisco Systems, up 2-1/4 at 55.

The computer networking company reported Thursday evening that its profit rose 84 percent to $229.7 million, or 39 cents a share, in its fiscal third quarter, exceeding most Wall Street forecasts.

UroMed, up 2-7/8 at 13-1/2.

The company acquired all technology and assets related to Miniguard Patch, a Food and Drug Administration-approved female incontinence product for $30 million.