CONRAIL INITIAL OFFER PRICED AT 28 DLRS SHARE
Lead underwriter <Goldman, Sachs and
Co> said an initial public offering of 58,750,000 shares of
<Consolidated Rail Corp> common stock has been priced at 28.00
dlrs per share.
    The sale is the largest initial public offering ever.  All
of the shares are being sold by the U.S. government.  They
represent an 85 pct interest in Conrail, the large northeastern
freight-carrying railroad.  Employees of Conrail retain the
other 15 pct.
    The shares will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange
under the ticker symbol <CRR> starting this morning.
    Initially, underwriters had said in proxy materials that
the shares were expected to be priced at 22 to 26 dlrs per
share.  But last week they raised the expected range to 26 to
29 dlrs per share.
    Conrail was formed during the 1970's from Penn Central
Railroad and other financially-distressed northeastern rail
carriers.
    The offering will raise about 1.65 billion dlrs before
underwriting fees.  Previously, the largest initial public
offering in dollar terms had been Henley Group Inc's <HENG> 1.3
billion dlr spinoff from Allied Corp <ALD> last year.
    Other lead underwriters are First Boston Inc <FBC>, Merrill
Lynch and Co Inc <MER>, Salomon Inc <SB> and American Express
Co's <AXP> Shearson Lehman Brothers Inc.
    Fifty-two mln shares are being sold in the U.S. through a
syndicate of 148 underwriters and 6,750,000 overseas through a
27-member syndicate.
 Reuter
