BUSINESS MEMO

Machine Maintenance and Equipment Co. of St. Louis has purchased some assets of Case Power and Equipment Co. of Fenton and Cape Girardeau.

Both facilities had been a distributor for Case Corp., a division of Tenneco, which is a manufacturer of construction and utility equipment.

The 18-year-old Machine Maintenance and Equipment will distribute Case products in Southern Illinois and Eastern Missouri, along with other products for the construction, drilling, mining and environmental markets. The company also represents Gardner-Denver, Ingersoll-Rand, Kawasaki, REX, Fiatallis and GEFCO lines.

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MARQUAND Yemm & Hart Ltd. of Marquand recently participated in a two-day Buy Recycled Products Trade Fair and Showcase in Washington, D.C.

Yemm & Hart displayed furniture manufactured of high density polyethylene and other items made from recently-discovered materials.

"We are proud to have an opportunity to share the knowledge we have acquired during the past two years," said Stephen W. Yemm, president of Yemm & Hart. "We have been actively involved in sponsoring awareness of recycled plastics and other materials."

Yemm's wife and business partner, Deborah Hart Yemm, said, "We spend a great deal of time at events educating others about the existence of this solution to one of our environmental problems."

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"Money Strategies" will be the subject of a free seminar to be presented in Cape Girardeau Saturday by the Charles J. Givens Organization, a financial-education organization.

Sessions will be presented at the Show Me Center at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Givens is author of two books, "Financial Self-Defense" and Wealth Without Risk," currently ranked numbers 1 and 4 on the New York Times best-seller list.

Advance registration information is available by calling 1-800-484-1016, extension 2737.

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B.W. Birk and Associates Inc., and Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District were recent award winners in a competition sponsored by the Mechanical Contractors Association Industry Benefit Fund of the St. Louis area.

Birk and associates installed the mechanical system in the district's Bissell Point facility's secondary treatment operation center building, which was selected the "Outstanding Mechanical Installation" in the $500,000 project category for 1992.

Plaques were presented to the district and Birk and Associates during a dinner at the Breckenridge Inn at Frontenac.

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ST. LOUIS - Southwestern Bell Corp. profits rose sharply in the second quarter, the fourth straight quarter of double-earnings growth, the company announced.

For the three months ending June 30, net earnings were $305 million, or $1.01 a share, up 76 percent, from $173 million, or 57 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

The earnings in the year-ago quarter were depressed by a one-time charge of $80.7 million for debt refinancing. Without that charge, Southwestern Bell's profit was up 20 percent in the most recent quarter.

Revenues increased 6.5 percent, from $2.24 billion to $2.38 billion.

"By almost any measure, this was an outstanding quarter," Edward Whitacre Jr., chairman and chief executive, said.

For the year's first half, Southwestern Bell earned $566.1 million, or $1.89 a share, up from $396.5 million, or $1.32 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $4.68 billion from $4.39 billion.

The St. Louis-based Southwestern Bell serves more than nine million homes and businesses in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas.

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Area satellite dish owners are eligible for a free descrambler upgrade program.

"By the end of 1992, legitimate subscribers to participating satellite TV programming services such as Showtime, HBO, Disney and others will continue to enjoy their favorite channels without a glitch," said David T. Michel of Down to Earth Satellite Systems, an authorized videocipher module service dealer.

Home dish owners subscribe to programming services much like their cable neighbors do, said Michel.

"This is the first time I have seen a free-upgrade-program offer to eligible customers a new piece of equipment at no cost," said Michel. "It's sort of like a manufacturer replacing an old eight-track tape player with a new CD player."

The new descrambler system will be necessary to receive the HBO, Showtime, Disney and other special programming.

"Our goal is to effect the free upgrade with the least possible inconvenience of our legitimate subscribers," said Susan Dennison of Showtime Satellite Network.

Dennison urged subscribers to contact authorized dealers to install the new program.

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Union Electric Co. has declared a quarter dividend of 56 cents per share of common stock, payable Sept. 30, to stockholders of record Sept. 9.

UE has paid cash dividends on common stock since 1906.

The board also declared the regular quarterly dividends on all classes of preferred stock, payable Nov. 15 to stockholders of record Oct. 20.

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ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch Co. Inc. has reported record earnings for the second quarter and the first half.

The company said the results were due primarily to higher profitability of each of its major business units and to lower financing costs.

The company said earnings for the quarter were $317.2 million, up 10.6 percent on earnings of $286.7 million in the same period a year ago. Earning per share was $1.09, compared with 99 cents in the second quarter of 1991. Sales rose 3.7 percent in the quarter to $3.38 billion, from $3.26 billion last year.

Earnings for the half were $541.2 million, or $1.86 per share, on sales of $6.41 billion, compared with earnings of $487.6 million, or $1.69 per share, on sales of $6.18 billion in the first six months of 1991.

The company said that during the first six months of this year Beer Institute figures showed that Anheuser-Busch beer volume sales accounted for about 44 percent of total brewing industry sales, including imports.