Advocate, Illinois Masonic to link

Boards at Advocate Health Care and Illinois Masonic Medical Centerapproved an affiliation pact that will join the two organizations.The groups believe the pact will permit Illinois Masonic and AdvocateRavenswood Hospital Medical Center to deliver better services. A keypoint of the agreement is the combination of services betweenRavenswood Hospital and Illinois Masonic, resulting in a multisitehealth care group serving the North Side. Oak Brook-based AdvocateHealth Care and Illinois Masonic, an acute care community teachinghospital on the North Side, plan to invest $32 million in theexisting Ravenswood Hospital campus.

Grubb & Ellis to aid Tampa firm

Commercial real estate broker Grubb & Ellis Co. of Chicago willprovide real estate services to Intermedia Communications' branch,district and regional offices across the nation. The Tampa-basedcompany operates in 350 locations and 4 million square feet of leasedspace, providing Internet, voice and data business communicationsservices to 90,000 small- and medium-size business customers.

China Southern launches service

China Southern Airlines, the largest airline in the People'sRepublic of China, began 747-400 freighter service three times a weekfrom O'Hare Airport to Shanghai's new International Airport in Pudongen route to its cargo hub in Shenzhen. The return flight fromShenzhen to Chicago is a direct flight. Both inbound and outboundflights make technical refueling stops in Anchorage.

National adds Vegas flights

National Airlines will begin new nonstop service between O'HareAirport and Las Vegas next Jan. 25, with two daily round trips. Theservice will complement National's existing Midway service, whichincludes three daily nonstop round trips to Las Vegas. From O'Hare, a14-day advance purchase coach round trip will cost $298 on National,an unrestricted coach one-way fare will be $376, and unrestrictedfirst-class one-way service will cost $526.

Boise Cascade settles lawsuit

Boise Cascade Office Products Corp., an Itasca-based unit of thefourth-largest forest products company, settled a lawsuit with formerstock owners who said their shares were undervalued in a $165.6million acquisition. Boise, Idaho-based Boise Cascade Corp. said inDecember it would buy the 18.8 percent of its Boise Cascade OfficeProducts subsidiary that it didn't already own at $13.25 per share.Shareholders filed nine lawsuits in Delaware Chancery Court inWilmington, Del., contending that the subsidiary's directors had anobligation to consider all offers to get the best price for thestock. The plaintiffs said the subsidiary's board was controlled bydirectors of the parent company and failed to live up to that duty.After negotiations among the parties, the price was raised to $16.50per share, or about $39 million more, and the shareholders agreed tosettle the lawsuits.

U.S. Can to buy back debt

U.S. Can Corp., a maker of plastic and steel containers, plans tosell $150 million of high-yield notes and buy back some of itsexisting debt as part of a management-led buyout. The company,through its subsidiary U.S. Can Co., is to privately sell 10-yearsenior subordinated notes through book manager Salomon Smith Barney,with help from Banc of America Securities. It also plans to buy backabout $236 million of its 10.125 percent senior subordinated notesdue 2006. U.S. Can agreed in June to be bought for about $269 millionby an investment group led by the company's chief executive. Thegroup, formed by chairman and chief executive Paul Jones and Boston-based buyout firm Berkshire Partners LLC, will pay $20 a share forthe Oak Brook-based firm.