L.A. TO LOSE MORE THAN ARCO'S LOGO.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

London-based BP Amoco Plc's expected buyout of Atlantic Richfield Co., symbolically at least, sets the Union Jack fluttering above Los Angeles, right next to the city's white surrender flag.

The deal, expected to be announced early this morning, blots another familiar logo from the downtown skyline as Arco joints the ranks of companies that disappeared from L.A. either through acquisition or a move to the suburbs.

In fact, the San Fernando Valley is headquarters to more major corporations - four - than downtown Los Angeles, which has one. It's a far cry from even a decade ago, when companies such as First Interstate Bancorp, Lockheed Corp., MCA Inc. and Great Western Bancorp called the Los Angeles area home.

The deal also raises questions about whether the new corporate culture at Arco, the nation's eighth-biggest oil company, will be as civic-minded as the one it replaces.

Arco officials declined to discuss the deal late Wednesday.

In addition to being one of the city's biggest enterprises, Arco also played a big philanthropic role, annually donating millions of dollars to local charities.

Lately, though, Arco has been working hard to cut costs in the face of record-low oil prices and is in the midst of trimming 1,200 positions from its 18,000-strong work force worldwide. One troubling aspect of the BP Amoco buyout is that it provides further opportunity to cut costs in Arco's Los Angeles operations.

In fact, Arco could be hit hard with further reductions if BP's past practice is any indicator. When British Petroleum joined Chicago-based Amoco, the deal was initially called a merger of equals. But BP trimmed the payroll by a lot more than the 6,000 initial positions and the ax fell heaviest at old Amoco jobs.

Most of that company's top management left during the transition.

`Doesn't bode well'

Now it is Arco's turn, and the reverberations might be felt outside of the corporate corridors.

``It doesn't bode well,'' said Mike Roos, president and chief executive of LEARN, a private, nonprofit group.

The Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now has received $700,000 from Arco since 1991.

``The first two letters in profit are PR and Arco always understood that more than any company that has ever come along,'' Roos said, alluding to Arco's well-known public relations efforts. ``They were the pace setters and standard setters and no one ever came close in terms of the professional staff they employed. When they gave you a gift and made a commitment it meant something because it was substantial.''

For example, when LEARN was founded in the early 1990s, Arco President Robert Wycoff personally helped get the education foundation going and raise funds from other companies.

Joe Haggerty, president of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles, said Arco has always been one of the nonprofit group's biggest supporters and had an active employee contribution plan.

Last year, United Way received about $1.3 million from Arco after the company matched employee contributions of more than $600,000. Additionally, company employees served on many United Way boards and contributed time to charitable endeavors.

New attitude

Now Haggerty wonders what kind of attitude the new regime will have.

``We don't know what the new corporate culture will be or if things will change. We will meet with whomever the (leaders) are and talk with them about the issues facing Southern California and hopefully they will continue to have some major involvement,'' he said.

Linda Dozier, Arco's spokeswoman, said that last year the company's philanthropic arm, the Arco Foundation, donated about $14 million to charity with 30 percent of the money funneled into the Los Angeles area.

As part of the corporate downsizing, that amount was reduced to $12 million this year.

As more corporations are bought out or leave Los Angeles, raising money has become more difficult, Haggerty said.

``Headquarters companies tend to set high standards,'' he said. ``What we have been doing at United Way is looking at more of the new entrepreneurial companies and at wealthy individuals and the new markets in the Latino and Asian communities.''

Anita Zusman, vice president of legislative affairs for the Greater Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, downplays the impact Arco's buyout will have on the city's image.

``I think the business community and the chamber are sorry to see Arco's headquarters move in part because Arco was such a generous and important corporate contributor to the community,'' she said. ``We're losing headquarters but at the same time we have this whole new layer of small growing entrepreneurial companies that basically are changing the face of the L.A. economy,'' she said.

Staying downtown?

Regardless of how the deal shakes out, Arco will probably maintain a presence downtown. But even that has been dwindling in recent years.

In the mid 1980s the company employed about 1,500 people in twin towers with a stylish logo visible from downtown freeways. Today there are about 380 at the corporate headquarters and Arco Products Co., the marketing arm.

Finding new tenants for Arco's current headquarters shouldn't be a problem, according to Paul Stockwell, corporate managing director at Julien J. Studley Inc., a commercial real estate firm in Los Angeles. He said that prestige office space downtown continues to attract corporate clients.

For example, during last year's fourth quarter Deloitte & Touche leased 350,000 square feet of space at 2 California Plaza in the 300 block of South Grand Street.

``Arco has been downsizing for quite a while in downtown L.A. so I don't know necessarily that this merger or acquisition will result in a lot of further reductions,'' he said.

And Stockwell noted that BP will still require a West Coast headquarters, so Arco should remain a big presence in Los Angeles.

``In terms of the commercial real estate market, it's dollars and cents and square footage. Not whose name is on top of the building,'' he said.