Stimsonite Corp

Avery Dennison Corp., the world's leading maker of self-adhesive labels, agreed to buy highway safety products maker Stimsonite Corp. for about $137 million in cash. Avery Dennison will pay $14.75 a share for the Niles, Ill.-based company, a 40% premium over Stimsonite's Thursday stock price. Stimsonite, which had 1998 sales of $87.4 million, makes raised reflective road markers, work-zone markers and optical-film products used in highway signs.

Avery Dennison Corp., the world's leading maker of self-adhesive labels, agreed to buy highway safety products maker Stimsonite Corp. for about $137 million in cash. Avery Dennison will pay $14.75 a share for the Niles, Ill.-based company, a 40% premium over Stimsonite's Thursday stock price. Stimsonite, which had 1998 sales of $87.4 million, makes raised reflective road markers, work-zone markers and optical-film products used in highway signs.

When Pasadena-based Avery Dennison wanted to build its road and traffic business in China a few years ago, it hired people like Lily Tang. The Beijing homemaker had an asset the company craved: political connections. Tang's husband, Chen Qi, is a senior official at the China Communications and Transportation Assn., a quasi-governmental group led by former ministers.