Posted on Sat, Jun. 14, 2008
In the Region
Royal Bank of Scotland to sell Angel Trains
Royal Bank of Scotland will sell its Angel Trains unit for $7 billion to a consortium led by Babcock & Brown, it said yesterday. Angel Trains was created in the privatization of British Rail in the 1990s. It provides 4,100 passenger train vehicles and 280 freight locomotives to passenger and freight operators. Edinburgh-based RBS is the parent of Connecticut-based Citizens Bank, which has the second-largest bank-branch network in Philadelphia and its Pennsylvania suburbs, after Wachovia Corp.
- AP
J&J psoriasis drug shows promise and risk
An experimental drug from a Horsham unit of Johnson & Johnson appears effective at treating a severe skin disease, though government regulators said it also could slightly increase cancer risks. Centocor has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its biologic drug to treat psoriasis, which causes painful, red scales to grow on the skin. The FDA released its review of the drug, ustekinumab, ahead of a Tuesday meeting where outside experts will vote on whether it should be approved.
- AP
Foamex sets a date next week for rights offering
Foamex International Inc., the Linwood manufacturer of foam products, set June 20 as its record date for a rights offering announced in March. The financially troubled company had said it would allow shareholders to purchase common stock at $1.50 a share with the hope of raising $80 million to help it get out of debt. On that day, shares fell from $2.60 to $1.13 and have since dropped to $0.55 cents a share. The company said yesterday that it would allow each shareholder to buy 7.132 shares for every share owned at a 65 cents a share, with the sale commencing on June 23. Holders of second liens can also purchase shares at the same price at the same time. The company did not say how much money it now expects to raise through the offering. Shares closed up 5 cents yesterday at 60 cents.
- Jane M. Von Bergen
Phila. packaging firm to build plants in Africa
Crown Holdings, Philadelphia, is building two plants in North Africa. The can and packaging company's Carnaud Maroc SA unit will expand its operations in Casablanca, Morocco, with a new 700 million-can-year facility, and add a new plant in Agadir. The cost wasn't immediately disclosed. The Casablanca plant is expected to be operational next year; the Agadir plant is expected to open in August. Carnaud has had a Casablanca plant since it was a French company building plants in French colonies in the mid-1900s. Demand for Morocco-packed fish and other food and manufactured goods has risen since the country signed free-trade pacts with the United States and the European Union in recent years.
- Joseph N. DiStefano
Elsewhere
Citing steel costs, Chrysler to raise vehicle prices
Chrysler L.L.C. said it would boost prices an average of 2 percent on all 2008 model-year cars and trucks because of rising costs for steel and other commodities. The increase will take effect on vehicles shipped to dealers starting June 16, Chrysler spokesman Stuart Schorr said. Chrysler's U.S. sales fell 19 percent in the first five months of this year. Chrysler said the increase would bring its models in line with competitors' actions. General Motors Corp. raised prices as much as $1,500 in December because of higher commodity expenses and Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally said May 22 that the burden was among the reasons his company was forced to abandon a 2009 profit goal.
- Bloomberg News
Newspaper ad sales tumble in first quarter
U.S. newspapers' print advertising sales fell the most on record in the first quarter, tumbling 14 percent on shrinking real estate and job markets, and the loss of business to the Internet. Advertisers spent $8.43 billion on newspaper ads in the first three months of 2008, according to the Newspaper Association of America, the eighth drop in a row. Real estate and recruitment ads each fell 35 percent. Many of the industry's biggest advertisers in real estate, automotive and employment are cutting spending and shifting advertising to their own Web sites, said Kip Cassino, research director at Borrell Associates, a media consulting firm in Williamsburg, Va.
- Bloomberg News
Ford to offer more buyouts at some plants
Ford Motor Co. will conduct additional "targeted" buyouts at some U.S. plants as the automaker shrinks its workforce to match dwindling sales. Ford will decide "fairly soon" where the new offers will be made, spokeswoman Anne Marie Gattari said in an interview. "Targeted" buyouts were discussed by plant managers and United Auto Workers officials at a meeting in Detroit, she said. The plan for more early departures underscores the pressure on Ford after losses of $15.3 billion over the past two years.
- Bloomberg News
Verizon to expand discounts to cell-only customers
For the first time, Verizon Communications Inc. is set to give discounts to wireless customers who don't have landlines but order Internet or TV service from the phone company. In response to households dropping traditional service in favor of cell phones, Verizon will introduce a Flex Double Play bundle starting some time next week, giving discounts ranging from $8 to $12 a month for those who combine a Verizon Wireless plan with broadband or FiOS TV. Surveys point to about one in seven U.S. households now lacking landlines.
- AP
Delta Air Lines says it exceeded buyout target
Delta Air Lines Inc. said 4,000 employees have taken voluntary buyouts, double the number it targeted and an increase from the total announced two weeks ago. The airline said May 30 that 3,000 workers had accepted the severance offers, and since then 1,000 more have agreed to leave the Atlanta-based company, spokeswoman Betsy Talton said in a telephone interview. Delta had targeted 2,000 job reductions under a plan announced in March that also included trimming U.S. capacity as much as 11 percent and parking up to 90 of its planes and regional jets.
- Bloomberg News
Investors snap up newly offered UBS shares
UBS AG said investors bought almost all of a new share offering as it increased its capital by more than $15 billion in an effort to recover from problems related to the U.S. mortgage loan crisis. The company said investors exercised rights to buy 755,466,901 shares, or 99.4 percent of all the new shares offered under the program authorized at the April 23 shareholders' meeting. It said the remaining nearly five million new shares would be sold by UBS Investment Bank in open market transactions starting yesterday.
- AP
Scripps shareholders approve plan for division
Shareholders of E.W. Scripps Co. have approved the media company's plan to split into two public companies as of July 1. Shareholders signed off on the plan at the company's annual meeting in Cincinnati. Federal regulators and the company's board of directors have cleared the deal. One company, Scripps Networks Interactive, will include the cable networks and comparison-shopping sites Shopzilla and uSwitch. The other, E.W. Scripps, will have 10 broadcast television stations and newspapers in 15 U.S. markets.
- AP
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