New Stock Authorization: Shareholders of Pacific Enterprises,...

New Stock Authorization: Shareholders of Pacific Enterprises, parent of Southern California Gas Co. and Thrifty Corp., approved doubling the number of shares authorized to 600 million, but management said it had no immediate plans to issue any new stock. At the company’s annual meeting, Chairman James R. Ukropina argued for the measure to increase flexibility to pursue acquisitions or a stock split, though he emphasized that there were no plans to do either in the next year. Separately, Ukropina said flat oil prices could result in a non-cash writedown of oil and gas assets in the quarter.