REGION

REGION
Former plant workerssue defunct company
YOUNGSTOWN -- Four former Cold Metal Products employees are suing the corporation that owned and operated the defunct company and are also suing four of its former managers. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Youngstown, asks that defendants be ordered to pay for continuation of the salaried employees' pension plan and their life- and health-insurance plan.
AARQUE Management Corp. of Jamestown, N.Y., is named as a defendant, along with former Cold Metal officers R. Quintus Anderson, Heidi Nauleau, Raymond Torok and Joseph Horvath. The action was filed by James Harpster, Gordon Wilber, Dennis McHugh and John Watkins, all former salaried employees.
Cold Metal, once a Boardman-based steel processor, filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2002, and liquidated most of its assets at an auction in February. The company had five plants, including one in Campbell, and employed 116 locally.
NATION
Simon Propertybuys upscale mall
INDIANAPOLIS -- Simon Property Group Inc., which owns the Southern Park Mall in Boardman, has agreed to $333 million to buy an upscale shopping mall in California's Silicon Valley that is managed by Stanford University.
Purchase of the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto gives Indianapolis-based Simon a high-end mall as it continues its hostile takeover bid for Taubman Centers Inc., a smaller rival based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Taubman, which has been battling Simon's eight-month effort, specializes in upscale properties Simon wants for its portfolio.
Simon, North America's largest shopping mall owner, owns or has an interest in 238 properties with 182 million square feet of leasable space in 36 states.
Aurora Foodsto restructure
ST. LOUIS -- Aurora Foods, maker of Aunt Jemima pancakes, Duncan Hines baking mixes and other foods, will restructure through a pre-negotiated bankruptcy that gives a buyout firm a majority stake in the reorganized company.
J.W. Childs Associates of Boston would invest $200 million in exchange for a 65.6 percent equity interest in Aurora.
The pre-negotiated reorganization plan will eventually be filed through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, an Aurora spokesman said. Aurora has about 1,600 employees with headquarters in suburban St. Louis and plants in Mattoon, Ill., St. Elmo, Ill., Jackson, Tenn., and Erie, Pa.
From Vindicator staff/wire reports