Fuqua's New Guise And Old Gusto

Back in 1993, entrepreneur J.B. Fuqua paid $1 million to Fuqua Industries to remove his name from the company he built into a $2 billion conglomerate during the 1980s. It had fallen on hard times after he retired in 1989 as chairman and sold his stake. The company renamed itself Actava Group in 1993 and in 1995 was merged into Metromedia International.

Now, the name is back. Fuqua, who acquired 35% of Vista Resources in 1989, christened it Fuqua Enterprises (FQE) in 1995. And the new Fuqua is on a roll: On Apr. 30, its shares traded at 27 3/8 on the Big Board, up from 18 in early February.