Beazer Sweetens Koppers Bid, Offers to Settle for Part of Firm

PITTSBURGH —  Britain’s Brian C. Beazer said he would settle for only part of Koppers Co., the construction materials and chemicals company that he and Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc. are seeking in a hostile takeover.

In a letter that Koppers said its chairman, Charles R. Pullin, received Saturday, Beazer raised his group’s offer to $56 per common share, or about $1.6 billion, from $45 a share for the Pittsburgh-based company.

Beazer, chairman of the British construction company Beazer PLC, also said that “we would be prepared to discuss a transaction involving only the purchase of substantially all of your construction materials and services business.”

Selling the businesses to Beazer might save the rest of Koppers, but “I don’t know how bright a move that would be,” said securities analyst Gregory Drahuschak of Butcher & Singer in Pittsburgh. “It’s the lion’s share of the company’s earnings and revenue.”

The construction materials and paving services businesses are on solid footing after five years of retrenchment at Koppers, he said. The company reported 1987 earnings of $10.8 million on revenue of $1.5 billion.

Beazer said previously that he would sell the chemicals business if he gains control. His new offer remains open until April 1.

“The one thing this does to Koppers which really hurts is take time away. Whatever they’re going to do they better do it ASAP,” said Drahuschak. “April 1, that’s just not enough time” to organize a defense. Koppers said that, under a recapitalization plan it is contemplating as a defense, it might sell part or all of the construction materials business to third parties.

Drahuschak questioned whether any domestic bidder could match what Beazer could pay with the advantage of Britain’s stronger currency. The analyst said his firm has recommended shareholders sell at $52 per share or above.

The stock rose $3.75 a share to $57.50 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Beazer proposed meeting Pullin as early as Sunday, but no meeting was held and none is planned, Koppers spokesman Robert O’Gara said Monday.