Investor's bid wins auction for Burlington

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Bankrupt Burlington Industries may be just a shell of its former self, but investor Wilbur Ross Jr. said Tuesday that he has no intention of presiding over the textile manufacturer's demise.
On Monday, Ross was declared the winner of an auction for Burlington, with an offer of $620.1 million. His bid is to be submitted to a federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware for approval Thursday.
Ross said he wants to do the same thing with Burlington that he has done with a handful of American steel companies, bundling them together into the new International Steel Group.
"To some degree, it's essential that the U.S. textile industry be rolled up" like the steel industry, Ross said. "There are too many incidental, small players."
Ross' plan for Burlington includes selling the company's Lees carpet business to carpet-maker Mohawk Industries Inc.
"That will let us focus 100 percent on the remaining, somewhat smaller businesses and really focus in on them and focus on what can be done to build them up so they can really compete," he said. "We like to buy things, not to shut them down. We like to build them up."