Now You Can Be A Rubber Baron

In Business This Week

NOW YOU CAN BE A RUBBER BARON

WANT TO BUY A RUBBER COMpany? Gates is looking for a buyer for its Gates Rubber subsidiary, the world's largest maker of automotive and industrial belts and hoses. Family-owned Gates, which had revenues of $1.46 billion last year--virtually all of it from Gates Rubber--will hold on to an energy company, some Colorado real estate, and its 10,000-acre A-Bar-A guest ranch in Encampment, Wyo. Now run by Charles Gates, son of the founder, Gates has no third-generation heir apparent. The company is looking for a tax-free stock swap.EDITED BY KEITH H. HAMMONDS