BUSINESS BRIEFS
GMAC to receive $5B in rescue cash
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said yesterday that it will provide $5 billion to GMAC Financial Services LLC, the ailing financing arm of General Motors Corp., from the $700 billion bank rescue program.
The government will receive preferred shares that pay an 8 percent dividend and warrants to purchase additional shares in return for the money, the department said.
Treasury also said it will lend up to $1 billion to General Motors so the company can purchase additional equity that GMAC is planning to offer as part of its effort to raise more capital.
DOW MAY RETHINK $15.3 BILLION DEAL
NEW YORK — The collapse of a joint venture with a state-owned Kuwaiti company may make Dow Chemical less willing to pay the $15.3 billion price tag for Rohm & Haas it initially agreed to last summer as energy prices peaked.
Kuwait's government backed out of the deal with Dow late Sunday, calling the K-Dow Petrochemicals joint venture "very risky" because of the global financial crisis and crude prices that have tumbled more than 70 percent since July.
3 INVESTORS SEEK TO BUY INDYMAC
WASHINGTON — A trio of private investors — J.C. Flowers & Co., Dune Capital Management and Paulson & Co. — have teamed up in an effort to buy failed thrift IndyMac, a person familiar with the deal said yesterday.
The two private-equity firms and hedge fund Paulson have applied for a federal holding company charter, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the deal has not been completed.
KERKORIAN DUMPS LAST OF FORD SHARES
DETROIT — Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian has sold his remaining shares in Ford Motor Co., according to a spokeswoman for his investment company Tracinda Corp.
Kerkorian's stake in Ford peaked in June, when he owned 6.49 percent after paying $1 billion at an average share price of $7.10.
He began scaling back his ownership in October, selling shares at an average price of $2.43 each, according to regulatory filings — a loss of about two-thirds of his investment, or about $650 million.
Shares of Ford closed down 7 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $2.22 yesterday.
TREASURY BILL RATE LOWEST ON RECORD
WASHINGTON — The interest rate on six-month U.S. Treasury bills dropped to its lowest level on record at the weekly Treasury auction, the government said yesterday.
The Treasury Department said it auctioned $27 billion in six-month bills at a yield of 0.25 percent, an all-time low. That's down from a rate of 0.285 percent last week. Treasury rates have fallen to historic lows as the worst financial crisis in 70 years has triggered a rush by investors to the safety of government securities. Higher demand for such securities pushes their yield, or interest rate, down.
DELPHI HALTS WORK AT CHINA FACTORY
SHANGHAI, China — U.S. car parts maker Delphi Corp. has suspended work at a factory in Suzhou because of shrinking demand amid the global economic slump, a media report and a staff member said yesterday.
The factory west of Shanghai in the city of Suzhou makes compressors for General Motors Corp. Calls to the plant rang unanswered yesterday.
DELAYS SOUGHT ON CHINA AIR SERVICE
ATLANTA — Northwest Airlines is seeking to delay or cut back long-coveted U.S.-China service.
The subsidiary of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. said in a filing earlier this month with the Department of Transportation that it was seeking to delay proposed daily Seattle-Beijing service by a year from March 2009 to March 2010 and delay startup of Detroit-Shanghai nonstop service by more than two months, from March 25, 2009, to June 3, 2009.
