Business Notes INVESTMENTS

Want to buy a stake in an established, profitable service business in which the workers do everything they can to make customers happy? That proposition is being put forward by a group of Nevada entrepreneurs, led by lawyer Peter Perry and real estate developer Donald Clough, that is trying to attract investors for an unusual buyout. The target: Nevada's Mustang Ranch, the largest legalized brothel in the U.S.

A prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission notes that at the 27-year-old bordello, situated on two adjacent sites near Reno, more than 100 "independent contractors" generated $917,000 in profits last year on ^ $5.4 million in revenues. By selling shares for $20 apiece, the group plans to raise $23.3 million, $18 million of which would go to buying the ranch from its current owners, Joseph and Sally Conforte. Under its new ownership, the firm could function much like any other publicly held company. Except that its method of making money is not legal in any state besides Nevada.