Crown Books, Thrifty Corp. Among Purchasers : Firms to Buy Stake in May Stores

May Department Stores Co. said Thursday that Crown Books Corp. and certain affiliates, including Los Angeles-based Thrifty Corp., have notified the St. Louis-based retailer that they intend to buy an undisclosed amount of the company’s shares.

The board of May Department Stores has concluded that the acquisition by the group of a significant amount of shares “would not be in the best interest of the shareholders, employees or customers of the May Department Stores,” the company said in a short statement.

A spokesman for May Department Stores said Crown has bought less than 1% of the company’s 43 million shares of common stock outstanding. The company doesn’t know whether any of Crown’s affiliates have bought or plan to buy a significant amount of May’s stock, he said.

“We don’t know what their intention is,” he said.

No spokesman was available for Landover, Md.-based Crown Books, which operates a chain of more than 170 book stores. Thrifty Corp. Chairman Leonard Straus declined comment on the announcement or the group’s intentions.

May Department Stores said it was notified of the plan to buy shares under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. Under that law, the notification requirement is triggered by a variety of purchases, the smallest being 15% or more of a company’s voting securities, or a total of voting securities and assets worth $15 million or more.

May Department Stores’ stock closed Thursday at $45.375 on the New York Stock Exchange, down 25 cents.

The affiliates of Crown Books that said that they intended to buy May Department Store shares are Thrifty Corp., Dart Group Corp., Trak Auto Corp., Combined Properties Limited Partnership, Herbert H. Haft and Gloria G. Haft.

Thrifty and Dart Group each own 34% of Crown Books, which is traded on the National Market System. Trak Auto Corp. is a subsidiary of Dart Group. Trak Auto Corp. and Thrifty each own 50% of Trak Auto West, which operates more than 40 discount auto parts stores in the Los Angeles area.

Herbert H. Haft is chairman and Gloria G. Haft is secretary of Dart Group, formerly Dart Drug Corp.

May Department Stores operates 145 department stores, 57 discount stores and 1,651 self-service shoe stores. The company also owns or has an interest in 26 shopping centers. May Co. of California is a subsidiary of May Department Stores.