Business news with words american+sale. 48 news.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Penn Treaty American Corp. said Monday that it has retained Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. to assist its board in reviewing strategic alternatives, which could include partnerships or the sale of certain assets. Based on a preliminary report by its actuarial consultants, the Allentown, Pa., insurance company believes that it will have to increase claim reserves and that there may be offsetting or partially offsetting reductions in active life reserves. The valuation analysis is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2008. Shares of Penn Treaty closed Friday at $6.49.

A small 1950s bungalow in Stockton, California, is up for sale for $169,950. Sitting off a quiet road dotted with American flags, the Funston Avenue home has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a covered porch.$

Sallie Mae, the American student loan provider, sold $2.5 billion ($£1.25 billion) of shares yesterday to settle a bet that it had made against its own stock.

Repsol YPF, the Spanish oil and gas group, agreed the sale of 25 per cent of its Argentine and Bolivian division, in a deal aimed at cutting its exposure to the South American market

EUROPEAN stocks have had the biggest weekly loss in a month, led by mining companies and banks, on concern a plan by central banks to add cash to the financial system won't prevent an economic slowdown. "That's not the same as a broad rate cut," said Gerard Piasko, who oversees the equivalent of US$107 billion as chief investment officer of Julius Baer Holding AG's private banking division in Zurich. "The market prefers a proactive monetary policy. Risks to growth are increasing." BHP Billiton Ltd and Anglo American Plc, the world's largest mining companies, led an industry measure to its steepest drop in four weeks. HBOS Plc, the UK's biggest mortgage lender, tumbled the most in a month. UBS AG fell after Europe's largest bank by assets said a bond sale to replenish capital may raise the number of shares by as much as 12 percent, Bloomberg News reported. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index dropped 1.5 percent to 367.24, the steepest decline since the week ended

Union members at Filton, the Airbus-owned factory near Bristol, will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow.

Salmonella contamination forced Cadbury Schweppes to recall 1m chocolate bars in 2006; the last 12 months will be remembered for an even more costly setback. In March, Cadbury announced plans to auction off its American drinks business for up to £7bn ($14.1bn; E9.7bn); the plan was for the refocused confectionery group to train its sights on emerging markets such as India. But private equity suitors evaporated with the summer credit crunch; in November, Cadbury finally abandoned the sale in favour of floating the beverages business in New York. A flotation rather than a sale – the stock market move is scheduled for

Critics opposing the buyout of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. by CanWest Global Communications Corp. and its American partner stepped up their protest with a new poll suggesting that most Canadians believe cultural sovereignty ought to trump foreign ownership of domestic media.

A CLASH over intellectual property rights has emerged as a potential stalling point on the £1bn ($2.06bn, E1.4bn) sale of Jaguar and Land Rover, the luxury car brands. Ford, the marques’ American parent, is understood to want to retain ownership or reach an agreement on intellectual property relating to the Jaguar X-Type. The X-Type uses the same platform – that is, the part of the car under the passenger cabin, boot and engine compartment – as the Mondeo, Ford’s flagship family car. Ford fears that the two most likely buyers, Tata and Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian conglomerates,

A war of words broke out last night between bidders for Northern Rock as JC Flowers threatened to drop its bid plans for the stricken mortgage bank unless the Treasury agrees to immediate talks. Sources close to the American buy-out group said it had been trying all week to contact Treasury officials but claimed that so far it had been snubbed. “We expect to hear something,” one source said. “Effectively we want to move into an accelerated process alongside or instead of Virgin. We are in a position to reach agreement prior to Christmas with the required cooperation.” Northern Rock granted preferred bidder status to Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group at the beginning of last week but since then other bidders have reacted with outrage to Virgin’s preferential treatment and have rushed to put alternative proposals on the table. One source close to Virgin said: “Who are JC Flowers anyway?” City sources said one of the main reasons for choosing Virgin was to capitalise on the strength of the brand and use it to help to expand Rock’s retail deposit base. “I don’t see how Flowers solves the branding and deposits issue and without that, I don’t think it flies.” But the US private equity group is determined to stay in the running and yesterday said it was prepared to retain Northern Rock’s stock market listing so that shareholders can benefit from any recovery. The US firm was thought to be less favoured because it planned to take Northern Rock private via a prepackaged bankruptcy that left shareholders with nothing. A source close to JC Flowers said: “We are prepared to offer some form of continued participation for shareholders, which would allow them to benefit from Flowers’ track record in turnaround situations.” The Treasury, Bank of England and regulators at the Financial Services Authority are working with Bryan Sanderson, Northern Rock’s chairman, on a sale of the crisis-hit Tyneside lender, which has been in freefall since being forced to seek emergency funding from the central bank in mid-September. Northern Rock scaled back its unsecured lending further yesterday as it withdrew its Eskimo Loans brand and stopped offering its Visa credit card, funded by the Cooperative Bank, to new customers. Last week Northern Rock raised interest rates on its branded loans by 2 per cent. Rock

Japan is reluctantly embracing globalisation THROUGHOUT its history Japan has oscillated between openness to foreign ideas and fierce isolationism. This ambivalence is still reflected in its attitude to globalisation. Despite the worldwide presence of companies such as Toyota, Honda, Canon and Sony, Japan's integration into the world economy is surprisingly weak. Japan has the lowest levels of import penetration, inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign workers in the OECD (see chart 8). Foreign affiliates' share of turnover in manufacturing and services, at 3% and 1% respectively, is the lowest in the OECD. Nor has Japan participated in the global wave of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 2004 the sale of companies in the European Union to foreign firms accounted for 47% of global M&A by value, and that of American firms for a further 22%. The Japanese share, by contrast, was just 2.3%. In an era of unprecedented mobility of people, as well as goods and services, Japan's net migration since the second world war has been approximately zero. And so on. ...

Federal regulators have cleared the sale of Stora Enso Oyj's North American operations, based in Wisconsin Rapids, in a deal that will create a $4 billion producer of coated publishing paper and newsprint. (SEO)

Why Tata Motors is favourite to buy Jaguar and Land Rover THE sale by Ford of the two British premium marques, Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR), is fast approaching its conclusion. This week the three preferred bidders chosen by Ford, which has insisted that the two companies be sold together, have been presenting their plans to the British government and the unions. They are Tata Motors, India's biggest carmaker; Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian maker of utility-vehicles, together with Apollo, a private-equity firm; and One Equity Partners, another private-equity firm. Some time in the next few weeks one of them will carry off two of the car industry's most evocative brands--and a heap of risk. Ford wants a sale because its chief executive, Alan Mulally, wants to focus on turning round its North American business. He and other Ford managers are brutally frank in declaring that they are in a race against time that they may not win. A year ago, Ford mortgaged its assets in exchange for a $23.4 billion financing package to help it restructure. Mr Mulally has promised a return to profit in 2009. ...

Mistakes from one privatisation may hold important lessons for Northern Rock WHEN private-equity firms bubble into the public consciousness, they are generally viewed with disdain as the embodiment of capitalism red in tooth and claw. Rarely are they seen as a force for good, or as protectors of the public interest. So the industry's opponents--of whom there are many--are likely to react with glee to a report due to be released by the National Audit Office (NAO) on November 23rd. The spending watchdog lambasts the government for its handling of the sale of QinetiQ, once the Ministry of Defence's research arm. The deal has attracted much attention, not just because it was unusual--few governments are willing to part with the most sensitive bits of their defence industry--but also because of how much money was made on it. Carlyle Group, an American private-equity firm with an uncommon penchant for hiring former heads of state, invested GBP42m ($74m, at the exchange rate of the day) to acquire 34% of QinetiQ in 2003. More than three years later, when the company was floated on the stockmarket, Carlyle's share was worth GBP374m. The civil-service managers of QinetiQ did well too. Stocks for which the ten most senior ones together paid little more than GBP0.5m increased in value to GBP107m. ...

Compagnie Financi?re Richemont, the Swiss luxury goods company behind Cartier watches and Montblanc fountain pens, is considering spinning off its 19.3pc stake in British American Tobacco to avoid higher taxes.

RWE AG's American Water Works Co unit, NTK Holdings Inc and seven other companies pulled or delayed United States initial public offerings valued at US$4.1 billion last week as stock prices seesawed. RWE, Germany's second-biggest utility, postponed raising as much as US$1.5 billion in a share sale by Voorhees, New Jersey-based American Water. NTK Holdings, a Providence, Rhode Island-based home heating and ventilation services company, ended plans to raise as much as US$690 million. Volatile financial markets are curbing US share sales in what is already the best year for IPOs since the technology boom in 2000, when 442 companies raised US$99.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. Companies raised US$81.4 billion in 289 initial offerings this year through November 15. "The IPO markets have been rocky," said Ben Holmes, who tracks IPOs as the publisher of Morningnotes.com in Boulder, Colorado. "The credit markets have crept into different corners

With today's rapidly-changing and ever-evolving digital landscape, buyers and planners have their work cut out for them probably more than at anytime in the history of electronic media. DVR penetration today is at 18% nationally and Jupiter Research says that by 2010, 50 million American households will be ruled by TiVo and other DVR devices. To their client's growing ad-zapping fears, many agencies have compensated by shifting some of their buys away from so-called "traditional" media and instead putting a heavy focus on alternative platforms such as broadband and video-on-demand. However, from a ROI standpoint, these buys are leaving significant amounts of impressions out of sale.

Telefonica's net income rose 39%, boosted by a capital gain from the sale of a stake in Endemol and sustained growth in key Latin American and Spanish markets.

Is Gramercy Capital getting American Financial Realty Trust on the cheap? AFR shareholders may think so, but their expectations might not reflect the recent drop in property prices in secondary markets due to the credit crunch.

BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Analysts at Banc of America Securities in a note to clients Monday said Gramercy Capital's deal to buy office REIT American Financial Realty Trust for $3.4 billion in cash and stock, including assumed debt, is an indication that private-market pricing for net lease assets has changed. They noted the take-out price is 30% below where the American Financial Realty's stock traded less than nine months ago. "We believe the company faced few other options despite completing a portfolio repositioning plan, which included the sale of [about $2 billion] of assets," the analysts wrote. "With the plan nearing completion, growth continued to lag the sector and the stock continued to underperform its peers." Shares of American Financial Realty rose 23% to $7.93 at last check in the wake of the deal's announcement. Gramercy is a subsidiary of SL Green Realty Corp. .