In the Region

Bryn Mawr Bank to buy Media firm

Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. said it agreed to buy Delaware County competitor First Keystone Financial Corp., Media, in a stock and cash deal valued at $33.5 million based on Bryn Mawr's closing stock price yesterday of $16.32. The purchase, announced after the market closed yesterday and expected to close in next year's third quarter, will add $500 million in assets and eight branches to the Bryn Mawr bank's operations. Bryn Mawr had $1.2 billion in assets at the end of September. - Harold Brubaker

AmerisourceBergen 4Q profit up 13%

Chesterbrook drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp. said its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 13 percent on a mix of new business and market growth. For the period ended Sept. 30, AmerisourceBergen earned $130.1 million, or 44 cents per share, up from profit of $114.9 million, or 36 cents per share, last year. Revenue rose 9 percent to $18.72 billion from $17.16 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters on average expected profit of 40 cents per share and $18.06 billion in revenue. - AP

West Pharmaceuticals to cut jobs

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. said it would cut 100 jobs to trim costs. It also reported a rise in quarterly profit to 50 cents per share, from 40 cents a year ago. The Lionville, Chester County, company said it would eliminate 65 positions from its tech group and 35 positions from its pharmaceutical systems as it consolidates operations and sets aside plans to expand a U.S. metals facility. West employs about 6,300 in the United States and Europe. Excluding onetime items, West reported earnings of 45 cents per share. Third-quarter revenue was about flat at $258.9 million, compared with $256.2 million for the same period last year. Net income for the period that ended Sept. 30 was $17.2 million, up from $13.3 million a year earlier. The company cut its full-year 2009 guidance, saying it expects adjusted earnings of $2.08 to $2.13 per share, down from an earlier expectation of $2.10 to $2.20 a share. - Reid Kanaley

DuPont sees growth in 2010 earnings

DuPont Co., Wilmington, expects earnings growth next year by concentrating on key areas such as food production, environmental protection, and emerging-

market opportunities. DuPont said 2010 earnings would range from $2.10 a share to $2.40 a share. That would be up from its 2009 earnings outlook of $1.95 to $2.05 per share, excluding items. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters have predicted 2010 earnings of $2.01 a share. - AP

Harsco metals may lay off workers

Harsco Metals said it may lay off all 77 workers who service the Coatesville steel mill operated by ArcelorMittal. The workers provide metal recovery and other site services to support mill operations under a contract that ends on Dec. 31. Harsco is bidding on a new deal, but the workers will be let go if the company does not win the contract. ArcelorMittal took over the Coatesville mill from the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. - Paul Schweizer

Company receives $9.1 million grant

Philadelphia's Integral Molecular Inc. said it was awarded a five-year, $9.1 million contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, part of the National Institutes of Health, to define and map structures on infectious viruses to help develop improved vaccines against emerging diseases. - Miriam Hill

Grant for biotech firm

Trevena, a privately held King of Prussia biotechnology company, announced a $7.65 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify and characterize substances that affect cell behavior, which could lead to production of drugs with fewer side effects. - Miriam Hill

Elsewhere

GM posts monthly sales gain

General Motors Co. reported its first monthly gain in U.S. sales in almost two years while Toyota Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. also improved, a sign the auto industry it starting to crawl back from a yearlong slump. It came the same day that GM said its board of directors had decided to keep its European Opel unit rather than sell a 55 percent stake to Canadian auto parts maker Magna International. Demand for new cars and crossovers in October fueled better results for GM and Detroit rival Ford. GM's sales rose 4.7 percent from October 2008, while Ford notched a 3 percent gain. Japanese rival Toyota said its sales edged up less than a percent. Less rosy news came from Chrysler Group L.L.C., whose sales fell 30 percent, though they improved from September. - AP

Budget chief pledges to cut red ink

White House budget director Peter Orszag said the 2010 federal deficit will be little changed from 2009's record $1.42 trillion and he pledged to reduce the amount of red ink without endangering the economy. "Deficits of this size are serious and ultimately unsustainable," Orszag said in a speech at New York University. He said next year's revenue shortfall is projected to "be about the same size," with $9 trillion in deficits over 10 years, averaging about 5 percent of the economy. - Bloomberg News

Factory orders rise in Sept.

Orders to U.S. factories rebounded in September, helped by strength in autos, heavy machinery, and military aircraft. The Commerce Department said orders rose 0.9 percent in September, slightly better than the 0.8 percent gain economists had expected. Demand increased for both durable goods, and nondurable goods such as chemicals and energy products. - AP

Citizens CEO says it won't be sold

The head of Citizens Financial Group in the United States says it won't be sold by its parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland, as a condition of the British government's pouring billions of dollars into the firm. Chief executive officer Ellen Alemany says RBS' announcement that Citizens is not among the assets it will sell affirms that the banking firm is "a valued part of the RBS Group." Citizens Financial operates nearly 1,500 branches, as Citizens Bank in the Northeast, including in the Philadelphia area, and as Charter One in the Midwest. RBS says it's selling other assets as part of a deal in which the British government gives it 25.5 billion pounds, or about $41.8 billion, on top of an earlier bailout. - AP