BRIEFCASE PAISANO BUYS UP EASYRIDERS ASSETS.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

AGOURA HILLS - Easyriders Inc. announced Friday that a sale of all its assets to its predecessor company's ex-chairman was approved at a hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

The all-cash bid of $12.3 million was submitted by Paisano Publications LLC, owned by Joseph Teresi, and the sale closed Thursday.

The bidding process between Vintage Capital Group LLC and Teresi's Paisano Publications took place the day before.

Teresi was a founder of the original Paisano Publications 31 years ago. He sold his ownership interests in the magazine publishing enterprise in a corporate reorganization in September 1998, which created the publicly held company known as Easyriders.

The company will be delisted from the American Stock Exchange on Monday.

Allstate gets OK to increase rates

State regulators granted Allstate Corp. an 18.5 percent increase in rates for homeowner insurance and 8.9 percent for auto coverage.

The hikes approved Thursday will add about $112 per year to the average homeowner policy and $64 to the average auto insurance bill, said Lisa Wannamaker, an Allstate spokeswoman.

The new rates take effect on May 13 for new and renewing homeowners and May 27 for auto policies. Allstate last raised homeowner rates in 1994. Auto rates were increased by 6.2 percent last year.

Allstate has 895,000 homeowner and 2 million auto policies in California.

The increases were necessary because of rising claim costs linked to inflation and higher expenses for building materials, medical expenses and repairs, Wannamaker said Friday.