Shareholders of Genetics Institute Inc.'s (GI) convertibleexchangeable preferred stock have overwhelmingly elected totake the option of converting those shares into a combination ofcash and depositary shares, the Cambridge, Mass., companyannounced last week.

The shareholders had also been offered a straight cashconversion.

Approximately 99 percent of GI's exchangeable shares will beconverted to a combination of cash and depositary shares, eachof which represents one share of the company's common stock(NASDAQ:GENIZ) subject to a call option held by a subsidiary ofAmerican Home Products Corp.

As a result of the transaction, GI will have about 26.1 millionshares of common stock outstanding. This includes about 10.1million depositary shares. Through its subsidiary, AHP will nowown 65 percent of GI's outstanding stock. American HomeProducts bought 60 percent of Genetics Institute for $666million in a merger announced in September 1991.

GI's stock closed at $34.25 a share on Monday, up 25 cents.

-- Jennifer Van Brunt

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