Business news in brief

Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich., announced a plan yesterday to retire preferred shares used for its recent buyout of Rohm & Haas, Philadelphia, a move that will save it millions in dividend payments. Dow will offer about $6 billion in debt securities, some of which will be swapped with preferred stock held by two parties that helped the $16.5 billion buyout of Rohm go through last month. The move is substantial because the preferred shares paid an unusually high dividend of about 15 percent, and paying them off quickly was a way for Dow to save cash. - AP

Revenue at QVC, the West Chester home-

shopping television programmer, fell 10 percent and operating income declined 29 percent in the 2009 first quarter, its parent company reported. For the quarter ended March 31, revenue was $1.59 billion, compared with $1.77 billion in the same period last year, Liberty Media Corp. said. QVC's income from operations fell to $178 million from $250 million. "QVC continued to face a difficult retail environ-

ment with a reduction in consumer spend-

ing experienced not only in the U.S., but in each of our international markets," said Mike George, QVC president and CEO. - Paul Schweizer

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith Wizmur approved the bidding procedures and dates for the auction of the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City. The procedures are in connection with the Section 363 sale of the troubled casino approved last month by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. The dates, which Wizmur signed off on yesterday, include a bid deadline of May 29, an auction June 5, and a hearing on the sale order of the property June 12. A group of secured lenders that include billionaire Carl Icahn was approved as the stalking-horse bidder in the auction with a minimum credit bid of $200 million as the starting bid. - Suzette Parmley

Capmark Financial Group Inc., a commer-

cial mortage lender in Horsham, said it secured a commitment for a $1.5 billion term loan from some of its lenders. Capmark said it would use proceeds from the loan plus $75 million in cash to refinance a portion of its bridge-loan agreement and senior credit facility. The company also said that lenders holding 94 percent of its bridge loan, which had a balance of $833 million at the end of last year, had agreed to extend the maturity date until May 21. Capmark said last month it would have to file for bank-

ruptcy protection without that extension. - Harold Brubaker

Gloucester County property owners can now conduct a free online search of all deed, mortgage, and lien records to detect possible fraud. Home Security Search is accessible at www.landaccess.com, a real estate data base. If a property owner spots and reports suspected fraud to the county clerk, the county prosecutor will investigate, Clerk James N. Hogan said. Examples of fraud are a quit-claim deed, in which another party tried to sell the property without the owner's knowledge, or a mortgage taken out on the property without the owner's knowledge, the clerk's office said. Hogan said Gloucester was the first New Jersey county to offer the service. Union County is the only Pennsylvania county to offer it. - Paul Schweizer

Fannie Mae issued a grave warning about its future, saying it needed $19 billion in additional government aid as job losses grow and risky loans made during the housing boom go bad at a disquieting pace. The mortgage finance company, which already got a $15 billion govern-

ment bailout in March, warned in a regulatory filing that it may need even more money and won't be profitable for the foreseeable future. Fannie Mae posted a quarterly loss of $23.2 billion, or $4.09 per share. That compares with a loss of $2.5 billion, or $2.57 a share, in the year-ago period. The government, which seized control of Fannie Mae and its sibling Freddie Mac in September, has already spent about $60 billion to prop up the two companies. Fannie Mae's request yesterday brings the total to $79 billion. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lowered their standards for borrowers during the real estate boom and are reeling from the bust. - AP

Royal Bank of Scotland reported a first-quarter loss of 857 million pounds ($1.29 billion) as write-offs from the financial crisis increased despite a jump in revenues. The bailed-out bank warned that the next two years would be difficult. The loss compared with a profit of 245 million pounds a year earlier. RBS owns Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, which has more than 2,000 employees and more than 100 branches in the Philadelphia region. - AP

A group of dissident Chrysler bond holders says it's dropping its opposition to the automaker's proposed restructuring plan. Geoffrey Gwin, principal of the Group G Capital Partners hedge funds, said that after reviewing their options, the group realized it couldn't effectively challenge the plan in court. Gwin says the group's members still oppose the plan and will not sign term sheets supporting it, but won't keep up their legal fight either. Earlier this week, the group's nine funds said they represented $295 million of Chrysler L.L.C.'s total secured debt of $6.9 billion. That was down from previous estimates of 20 members with about $1 billion in debt. - AP

President Obama wants unemployment insurance to become a stepping-stone for future work by making it easier to enroll in school or job training. Whether he succeeds will depend on the willingness of states and colleges to change the rules. People who have been laid off and want to go school often have to give up their monthly unemployment checks. And if they decide to return to school, they often don't qualify for federal aid because elig-

ibility is based upon the previous year's income. Under rule changes Obama out-

lined, the Labor Department will ask states to make exceptions during economic downturns so that the unemployed can keep their benefits if they go to commun-

ity college or pursue other education or training. - AP

The trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's defunct money-management firm created a hardship program to speed reviews of claims of the hardest-hit victims of the multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. The program provides expedited payments of up to $500,000 each to investors who can't pay medical bills, buy food, or care for dependents, trustee Irving Picard said on the case Web site. It will also cover people age 65 and older who were forced to come out of retirement after losing money to Madoff. - Bloomberg News