Riggs, PNC Continue Negotiations

[emad]

By Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 5, 2005; Page E01

Riggs National Corp. and PNC Financial Services Group Inc. remained "well apart" yesterday in negotiations over a purchase price for Riggs, said a source with knowledge of the talks.

PNC continues to maintain that Riggs is worth less than $20 a share, a price that Riggs's board is unwilling to accept, said sources familiar with the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are continuing.

The two companies expect to keep talking over the weekend and into next week.

PNC agreed to pay about $24.25 a share for Riggs in July, but that was before Riggs pleaded guilty last month and agreed to a $16 million fine for failing to file reports on possible money laundering by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and officials of the West African nation Equatorial Guinea. Also since July, several civil actions have been filed against Riggs and its officers and directors. The potential liability, in addition to large amounts of cash spent by Riggs on legal issues in the past six months, led executives at PNC to argue that the deal should not be made at a per-share price above the mid-teens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61-2005Feb4.html

[No Mandate Here.]

1. We should LTTE every time one of these stories comes up

SHOUTING about the direct and probably scandalous connections betwen Riggs, Carlyle and * and the BFEE.

Thse stories are in the Pittsburgh papers all the time without word one about this connection.