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... Heard on the Street: Years into filing for Chapter 11, USG is smiling Business Previous Articles Dateline Markets Personal Bus.

Auto News Consumer Technology Mortgage Rates Consumer Rates Heard on the Street: Years into filing for Chapter 11, USG is smiling Wednesday, February 15, 2006 By Karen Richardson, The Wall Street Journal Just three years ago, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

was lending its shares of USG Corp.

to short sellers, who were betting the $4 stock of the building-materials company, under bankruptcy-court protection, had further to fall.

Two weeks ago, USG shares traded as high as $99.30, more than triple their price in mid-2001, when USG filed for Chapter 11 protection for the second time in a decade - this time to fend off lawsuits from people who claimed they were exposed to asbestos, a cancer-causing fire retardant that USG used in some products until the 1970s.

One securities analyst thinks the stock will keep climbing, and USG has even announced a plan to sell new stock to existing shareholders.

It is a remarkable comeback for the 104-year-old company - and an unprecedented recovery for the stock of a company that is still doing business under protection from creditors.

"It's the most successful managerial performance in bankruptcy that I've ever seen," Mr.

Buffett says.

Berkshire still owns about 15 percent of USG, the same stake it held when Mr.

Buffett was lending ou...

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E-Mail This Story Printer-Friendly Format Bank of England Sees Faster-Than-Predicted 2006 Growth, Steady Inflation Avis Europe Plans to Cut Jobs; Full-Year Earnings Beat Analysts' Estimates Hanson, Saint-Gobain Hurt by U.S.

Asbestos Upset, Dresdner Analysts Say Hanson, Saint-Gobain Hurt by U.S.

Asbestos Upset, Dresdner Says Feb.

15 (Bloomberg) - Hanson Plc, the world's biggest supplier of sand and gravel for building, may be a less attractive takeover prospect after the U.S.

Senate blocked a proposed $140 billion fund for asbestos victims, said Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.

Cie.

de Saint-Gobain SA may also suffer.

The fund was blocked yesterday amid concern that the company-financed plan would cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The measure was intended to end asbestos lawsuits that have forced almost 80 businesses into bankruptcy, among them USG Corp., the world's largest wallboard maker.

``We remain unconvinced that an acquirer would be interested in buying/merging with Hanson, unless the asbestos liabilities were capped in law,'' London-based Dresdner analyst Darren Shaw wrote in a not...

... Big Day for New Fed Chief (BLACKROCK INCORPORATED (BLK),W.R.

GRACE & CO (GRA),Las Vegas Sands Corp.

(LVS),Merrill Lynch & Co.

Inc.

(MER),MITTAL STEEL COMPANY NV (MT),USG Corp.

(USG))| SmartMoney.com #tooltip{z-index:5000;border:1px solid #666;background-color:#deefff;padding:2px;display:none;position:absolute;top:250px;left:50px;width:165px;} .dqStyle{color:black;font-size:10px;font-family:verdana;font-weight: bold;} .dqNoChg{color:black;} .dqUp{color:green;} .dqDn{color:red;} .ticNoChg{background-color:#FFFFFF;} .ticUp{background-color: #CCFFCC;} .ticDn{background-color:#FFE4E1;} Wednesday February 15, 2006 10:00 AM ETU.S.

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