Gwinnett Daily Post

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Steel products maker Nucor Corp. said Tuesday it has offered $1.07 billion for Canada's Harris Steel Group Inc. whose board is recommending that its shareholders accept the all-cash bid.

Nucor, which makes steel from recycled metal at its ''minimill'' operations across the United States, said the deal would broaden its geographic reach and give it opportunities to grow.

Nucor is offering 46.25 Canadian dollars ($39.69) for each Harris Steel share, a 6 percent premium over Harris' closing price of 43.49 Canadian dollars ($37.32) Friday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The offer values Harris's stock at 1.25 billion Canadian dollars ($1.07 billion), according to Nucor. Harris also had 123 million Canadian dollars ($105.5 million) in debt at the end of September.

The tender offer will be open for at least 35 days and has the support of the boards of both companies, the news release said.

In addition, the companies said John Harris, chairman and chief executive of Harris Steel, and other members of the Harris family and Paul Kelly, Harris Steel's president and chief operating officer, have agreed to tender their shares to Nucor, giving Nucor more than 50 percent of Harris Steel shares.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An Atlanta-based company that operates Church's Chicken restaurants is acquiring Shoney's Restaurants for an undisclosed amount.

Royal Hospitality Corp., an affiliate of Royal Capital Corp., said it will take over all 282 Shoney's restaurants from Shoney's LLC., which is owned by an affiliate of Dallas-based Lone Star Funds.

Best known for its breakfast bar, Shoney's has 282 locations in 18 states, 230 of which are owned by franchisees. Royal expects to complete the acquisition of the 52 company-owned Shoney's restaurants by the end of the month. The restaurants will continue to be called Shoney's, and the chain's headquarters will remain in Nashville, Tenn.

Royal is the largest franchisee of Church's Chicken with 112 restaurants located in Arizona, California and Texas.

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MIAMI - Lennar Corp., one of the nation's largest homebuilders, said Tuesday it expected a fourth-quarter loss as the company reevaluates how much its inventory is worth amid a slowing industry.

The Miami-based company expects a loss within a range of 88 cents per share to $1.28 for its quarter ended Nov. 30 after a pretax charge of up to $500 million for the inventory evaluation. Official earnings for the quarter will be released before the market opens on Jan. 17.

Before the valuation adjustments and write-offs, the company expects its fourth-quarter earnings to be within a range of 70 cents to 75 cents a share.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected an average of $1.07 per share. The company predicted a range of $1 to $1.30 a share when it announced third-quarter results on Sept. 26.

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BOSTON - Massachusetts' top securities regulator is investigating whether leased office space and other services that investment banks provide to hedge fund traders have created a conflict of interest that could hurt investors.

Secretary of State William Galvin said in an interview Tuesday that Switzerland-based UBS AG was cooperating with his request for documents that he hopes will show whether hedge funds are paying higher than normal brokerage fees to compensate the investment bank for office space.

Galvin declined to say whether he had requested such information from banks other than UBS, or from hedge funds. But he said he was examining such lease arrangements industrywide, including services such as receptionists provided to traders in so-called ''hedge fund hotels.''

At issue is whether such enticements to win hedge funds' trading business lead to higher management fees that investors pay the funds, and whether the fees are adequately disclosed to investors.

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CLEVELAND - Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. workers returned Tuesday after a three-month strike, with the world's third-largest tire maker saying it could be weeks before full production resumes.

''Production at the affected tire and engineered products plants will ramp up over the next few weeks,'' the Akron-based company said in a statement marking the return. ''Full supply of Goodyear products is expected to be available soon thereafter.''

Jack Hefner, vice president of Steelworkers Local 2 in Akron, said Tuesday that workers were happy to be back.

But there was tension at the Sun Prairie, Wis., plant where some workers said managers smiled and waved their paychecks at the picket lines.

Jon Rich, president of Goodyear's North American Tire business, said the company welcomed the end of the walkout.

Workers at 12 plants in 10 states ended their strike Friday by approving a three-year agreement covering 14,000 employees that includes plans to close the Tyler, Texas, tire factory and creates a $1 billion health care fund for retirees. The contract was approved by all 12 locals and the overall membership by a 2-to-1 ratio.

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WASHINGTON - People overwhelmingly support two of the Democrats' top goals - increasing the minimum wage and making it easier to buy prescription drugs from other countries - as the party takes control of Congress for the first time in a dozen years.

By a smaller margin, the public also favors relaxing restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a third issue Democrats have promised to tackle during their first 100 hours in charge.

The jury is out on incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most people say they do not know enough yet to have an opinion about the California Democrat who will be the first woman in that office, an Associated Press-AOL News poll found.

The survey results come as the 110th Congress is set to convene Thursday at noon. Voters last November toppled Republican majorities in both the Senate and House, exasperated by investigations into the ethics of GOP lawmakers and unhappy with the war in Iraq.

Democrats will hold a 233-202 edge in the House and will control the Senate by 51-49.

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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Dutch police banned Segways from all public roads, bike paths and walkways as of New Year's Day, surprising the nation's official importer of the two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters.

Segway Nederland director Piet Kruijt said Tuesday the company was ''completely ambushed'' by the decision, first announced by national police on Nov. 27, 2006.

Police said that with no approval of the vehicles in sight by the country's Royal Traffic Agency, they could not be allowed to continue using public streets.

The Segway ''is a motorized vehicle, and according to Dutch law, a mo-ped,'' a police statement said.

But because the Traffic Agency hasn't approved the vehicle, the police statement said, it can't be issued license plates.

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STUTTGART, Germany - DaimlerChrysler AG has reached an agreement with insurers over their contribution to a $300 million settlement of an investor lawsuit over the 1998 merger that created the company, a spokesman said Tuesday.

Thomas Froehlich, a spokesman for the U.S.-German automaker in Stuttgart, said DaimlerChrysler and the insurance companies, led by ACE Ltd., reached an agreement before the new year.

Froehlich declined to discuss details. However, the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper said the insurers would contribute 168 million euros ($222 million), out of an outstanding 175 million euros ($231 million) stemming from the 2003 settlement of the lawsuit over the merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp.

The newspaper said U.S. insurer AIG had already paid $25 million (18.9 million euros) and that DaimlerChrysler had paid the rest.

The head of ACE in Germany, Lothar Riedle, also confirmed an agreement but declined to elaborate.