Edelman Buys Payless Stake

Corporate takeover artist Asher B. Edelman and a Midwestern building materials company have acquired a 7.6% stake in Payless Cashways Inc. and said Thursday that they may try to acquire the company.

In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Edelman and Sutherland Lumber-Southwest Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., said they had bought about 2.56 million shares of Payless, the nation’s third-largest building materials retailer. Payless has about 33.66 million shares outstanding, giving the company a market value of about $728 million at Thursday’s closing price.

Perry Sutherland, one of the family members that heads the privately held Sutherland Lumber, said he had no comment on an additional 519,000 shares of Payless stock that was traded Thursday. If the block went to the investment group, that would boost its stake to about 9.2%.