PLUS BUSINESS

FACTORY FINED: A South Carolina pillow factory accused of hiringmore than 100 illegal aliens, including a 12-year-old boy, is beingfined a record $580,000 by immigration officials. The 12-year-oldwas earning $4 to $5 an hour doing menial labor, said Thomas P.Fischer, head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service office inAtlanta. The boys were among 85 illegal aliens from Mexico and Perufound working at the Piedmont Quilting Corp. in Walhalla, S.C.,during a July 17 raid, Fischer said. The administrative fine is thelargest imposed by INS under a 1986 law that bars employers fromhiring illegal aliens. It was announced a day after the company, itsowners and nine managers were indicted on charges of illegallyrecruiting and harboring illegal aliens. ST. MORITZ SOLD: Struggling Australian investment conglomerate BondCorp. said today it will sell New York's luxury St. Moritz Hotel toan Australian creditor for $175 million. The buyer, FAI Insurances,said the purchase cut its net exposure to Bond debt to just above$235 million. Bond bought the 33-story hotel at the end of 1988 fromDonald Trump for $180 million, helping to fund the deal with a firstmortgage from FAI of $155 million.

EAST-WEST VENTURE: The West German federal cartel office in Berlingave the green light today to plans for the first East-West Germanjoint venture, between Volkswagen of West Germany and IFA-Kombinatautomotive company of East Germany. The joint venture between VW andIFA, which produces the Trabant car, is aimed at co-ordinating thetwo companies' future development and sales of cars and othervehicles. The joint-venture firm will probably first be establishedat VW headquarters in Wolfsburg, West Germany. THIRD AREA CODE: Telephone-crazy Southern California will get athird area code in 1992 because of overloading caused by cellularphones, fax machines and computers as well as ordinary phones. "Weare simply running out of telephone numbers," Pacific Bell VicePresident Dominic Gomez said. The existing 213 area will be split,spawning a new 310 area code to join 213 and 818, making Los Angelesthe first city to be divided into three area codes. Gomez saidrising population - the usual reason for adding area codes - is afactor, but so is the growing use of computer modems, pagers, carphones, fax machines and multiple phone lines. NO MESA DISTRIBUTION: Mesa Limited Partnership, the energy companyrun by takeover strategist T. Boone Pickens, announced today it willstop paying unit holders a cash distribution because of low pricesfor natural gas, which account for 80 percent of its holdings. Mesasaid it would pay its 37.5 cents distribution for the fourth quarter,but "discontinue cash distribution to the common units until industryconditions and cash flow improve." MASSACHUSETTS WORST: Massachusetts' credit rating has dropped belowLouisiana to the lowest for any state, and a financial official saidtoday a "junk bond" rating is possible if the state legislature failsto raise taxes. Standard & Poor's dropped Massachusetts' long-termdebt rating Wednesday from A to BBB. Cathy Daicoff, S&P's managingdirector of municipal finance, said that put Massachusetts a stepbelow Louisiana, which is rated BBB Plus. The legislature has beenunwilling to raise taxes or to make the deep spending cuts needed tobalance the budget. GRAINS HIGHER: Grain and soybean futures prices closed mostly highertoday on the Chicago Board of Trade, paced by modest gains in thesoybean market amid concerns about new-crop supplies. Wheat futureswere 1 cent to 2 1/4 cents higher with the contract for delivery inDecember at $4.16 1/4 a bushel; corn futures were 3/4 cent lower to1 3/4 cents higher with December at $2.35 a bushel; oats wereunchanged to 1/4 cent higher with December at $1.43 3/4 a bushel;soybeans were 1 1/2 cents to 4 1/4 cents higher with January at $5.821/2 a bushel.