April 29, 1992

The most profitable of Britain's big four nationwide banks, Lloyds Bank P.L.C., said today that it was considering an offer of nearly $6.5 billion for another of the big four, Midland Bank P.L.C., which is already being sought by the Hong Kong-based banking group, HSBC Holdings P.L.C. Lloyds said it would make the bid if regulators guaranteed that it would be on an equal footing in a takeover fight. The offer, if made and accepted, is expected to accelerate the consolidation under way in the British banking industry, which, like the American industry, is plagued by high costs and too many branches and employees. First Offer Backed Earlier this month, Midland's board agreed to recommend that shareholders accept an offer of shares and bonds from HSBC, parent of the giant Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The offer is now worth about $:4 a share, or a total of $:3.27 billion ($5.81 billion). That is about $682 million below the planned offer by Lloyds of $:3.66 billion ($6.49 billion) in cash and shares, based on Lloyds's closing stock price today in London.

The leader of a broad coalition of Afghan Islamic groups arrived in Kabul today and assumed power from the former Government. He was greeted by restrained public jubilation, celebratory gunfire from the guerrillas controlling the capital and shouts of "God is great!" Sibgatullah Mojadedi, who was elected last week to head a 50-member ruling council of Islamic guerrillas, religious leaders and intellectuals, announced the creation of an Islamic republic and declared a general amnesty for all Afghans, excluding the former President, Najibullah, who has taken sanctuary in a United Nations building here.

Are small stocks worn out? From the looks of things in the past week, they are rather ragged. And analysts who make it their business to track stocks of small companies are heaping more and more scorn on them. Perhaps the only thing going for stocks of companies with market capitalizations under $500 million is the contrarian view: nobody loves them, thus, there's likely some money to be made.

Gov. Bill Clinton kept rolling toward the Democratic nomination Tuesday with a commanding victory in the Pennsylvania primary, reinforcing his dominance over former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, Mr. Clinton had 57 percent of the vote, Mr. Brown had 26 percent and former Senator Paul E. Tsongas, who withdrew from the race last month, had 13 percent.

Throughout New York State yesterday, pharmacists locked their doors and traveled to Albany to protest changes in Medicaid reimbursement that they said could force them to close their doors permanently. Many other pharmacists who remained open refused to fill Medicaid prescriptions. At a time when curbing Medicaid costs has become a priority across the country, yesterday's protests were meant to remind legislators that numbers on a ledger sheet represent income to independent pharmacists, who dispense medication to poor patients.