Britain’s Great Universal to Buy Metromail

British home shopping company Great Universal Stores agreed to buy U.S.-based mail-order company Metromail Corp. for $831 million. Promising “substantial” synergies with its other American units, Great Universal Stores, known as GUS, said it would pay $31.50 a share for the outstanding stock of Metromail and assume its debt. Metromail had sales of $328 million last year. GUS’ other U.S. companies include Experian and Direct Marketing Technology, which have strength in catalog shopping, automotive information and financial services. Metromail specializes in packaged consumer goods, fund-raising, retailing and telecommunications such as databases for directory inquiries. Shares of Lombard, Ill.-based Metromail shot up $5.63 to close at $31.50 on the NYSE.