Restructuring

Unisource Worldwide Inc., a major Berwyn marketer and distributor of paper products and supply systems, yesterday said its proposed corporate restructuring would not be complete until June 30, two months later than it had planned. Unisource also said it was expanding the review of operations to 70 of its locations from the 50 originally planned, and was now examining virtually every task in the company. In addition, it predicted that its earnings for the current quarter, which ends next week,, and the fiscal year "will be substantially below consensus estimates" of market analysts, but said it is "extremely confident of the company's long-term prospects for profitable growth.

K. Hovnanian's Pennsylvania and South Jersey divisions will relocate their offices to Edison, N.J., as part of the parent company's restructuring of its operations in the Northeast and California. Six divisional offices will be consolidated into one regional office under the plan announced this week by Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., based in Red Bank, N.J. Combined with a similar restructuring in California, the move will mean the loss of about 110 jobs companywide. The cuts represent about 10 percent of the homebuilder's work force of 1,100 people.

PSFS' parent, Meritor Financial Group, yesterday sold the first of three subsidiaries that were put on the block as part of a restructuring plan. Minnesota-based Knutson Mortgage Corp. is buying Meritor Mortgage Corp.- Central, one of three mortgage subsidiaries owned by Meritor Financial, for $25 million. The other two mortgage subsidiaries, Meritor-East and Meritor- West, aren't for sale. The Knutson deal is supposed to close May 2. Meritor still is trying to sell Meritor Savings Bank in Washington, D.C., and the automobile financing unit of Meritor Credit, its consumer lending subsidiary, in Plymouth Meeting.

The parent of PSFS yesterday reported a record loss of $379.6 million for the third quarter, and said the company's work force will be slashed by 14 percent as part of a restructuring plan aimed at restoring profits. The restructuring will shrink the size of the nation's largest savings bank from $19.6 billion to $18 billion. With the announcement, PSFS became the second Philadelphia bank this year to dramatically cut its work force. The other bank, Mellon, is eliminating 650 positions.

GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Andrew Witty said Tuesday that the pharmaceutical industry would contract in coming years and that the survivors would be the companies that solved the "equation" of how to squeeze the most profit from every pound or dollar spent on research and development. Financial markets are the driver of the change. "The market is signaling that it wants less - in total - spent on R&D, so the total amount of R&D will come down," Witty said from the London Stock Exchange during a conference call with reporters after the release of second-quarter earnings.

Fischer & Porter Co., the Warminster maker of precision instruments, yesterday said it would take a $20 million after-tax restructuring charge in the fourth quarter and would make further reductions in its workforce. The company also said it expected a loss of $3 million in the fourth quarter and a loss of $5 million for the year, excluding the special charge. In a statement, the company said that $17 million of the $20 million charge was related to a restructuring plan the company developed after analyzing its businesses and operations.

After Six Inc., the Philadelphia maker of tuxedos, yesterday said it had restructured its balance sheet as it strives to turn around its beleaguered financial performance. The company said it renegotiated terms of junk bonds it issued five years ago when the company was taken private. Company president Robert C. Rudofker would not release details of the restructuring, saying only, "We've restructured something they considered proper and fair. We had some problems and the important thing is we resolved them.

IN HIS Jan. 13 op-ed, "Electric Rate Shock," Tom Knox claims that the restructuring of Pennsylvania's electricity industry failed. If Mr. Knox wants to be considered seriously as a candidate for governor, he needs to get his facts straight. Fact: The state's electric customers have saved billions since restructuring began compared to what they would've otherwise paid. Fact: When adjusted for inflation, the rates Pennsylvanians pay are 12 percent less than they paid in 1996 despite the fact that the cost to produce electricity has increased substantially.

The World's Largest Store put the World's Tallest Building up for sale yesterday, in recognition of the fact that, in these days of mega-mergers, nobody in the world is too big to be taken over. Sears, Roebuck & Co. announced plans to sell its 110-story headquarters building as part of a restructuring plan designed to strengthen the retail colossus against the possibility of yet another mega-merger. With the restructuring, Sears hopes to raise enough cash to buy back up to 10 percent of its own stock, about $1.7 billion worth.

The mood outside the Sears, Roebuck's distribution center on the corner of Roosevelt Boulevard and Langdon Street was one of confusion - and expectation. Workers said their fears were confirmed yesterday during a noon meeting between employees and management. "There had just been too many changes over the past three years," said Laura Reynolds, who works in the center's retail department. The company announced that the responsibility of the center's catalog division is to be shifted to Greensboro, N.C., and Columbus, Ohio, as part of the restructuring of the Philadelphia facility.