Actual finance blog

Senior Federal Deposit Insurance Corp officials privately discussed who might replace Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit if the bank needed more government aid, the Financial Times reported on its website late on Monday.

Successors being discussed by FDIC officials include Ned Kelly, Citigroup’s chief financial officer, Gary Crittenden, his predecessor and chairman of the division containing the New York company’s non-core assets, and one of Citi’s new board members, the paper said, citing people close to the situation.

The FDIC did not return a Reuters email seeking comment that was sent outside of normal business hours.

The paper said the FDIC is one of the regulators which has a say on whether Pandit steps down if the government bails out Citi for the fourth time in six months faxless payday loan online.

A Citigroup spokesman in Hong Kong declined to comment on the report.

Last week, Citigroup, reported better-than-expected results as an accounting benefit for distressed companies, cost-cutting and improved trading results helped offset red ink from consumer lending and credit cards.

The bank, bailed out with $45 billion of taxpayer money, joined Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Wells Fargo & Co in signaling that massive government efforts to jump-start the ailing economy are helping boost bank earnings.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Anshuman Daga)

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General Motors Corp has told U.S. dealers it is accelerating its timetable for closing about 1,700 dealerships as it rushes to meet a June 1 deadline to restructure under U.S. government oversight, people with knowledge of the discussions said.

In a series of meetings with key dealers including representatives of the National Automobile Dealers Association, GM executives also said about 200 dealerships had closed in the first quarter, according to people briefed on those talks.

The sources asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of GM’s discussions with its cash-strapped dealers.

Dealer representatives met on Tuesday in Detroit with GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson and on Wednesday with GM sales chief Mark LaNeve, the sources said.

A GM spokesman confirmed that the meetings had taken place but declined to comment on the closed-door discussions.

Separately, Chrysler LLC executives, including sales chief Jim Press, held a conference call for dealers on Tuesday and met with key dealers on Wednesday, sources said.

“The message was that all the balls are in the air, but they were committed to trying to reach a deal with Fiat,” one Chrysler dealer who participated in the briefing said.

Chrysler could not be immediately reached for comment.

Both embattled automakers were meeting with dealers, with just weeks remaining to hammer out new concessionary deals with creditors and their major union under the threat of a government-sponsored bankruptcy instant cash loans.

Chrysler has until the end of April to conclude a deal with Italy’s Fiat SpA and win other needed concessions. GM has been given until June 1 to attempt its own out-of-court restructuring by U.S. officials.

GM dealers who met with executives in Detroit this week were told that the automaker has several interested potential investors in its troubled Hummer SUV brand and expected to have an offer that would keep the brand running, one of the people familiar with the discussions said.

GM’s Henderson had said in late March that a decision on Hummer could come within weeks. Henderson took over as CEO when the government ousted Rick Wagoner amid criticism he had moved too slowly on the automaker’s restructuring.

HOT BUTTON ISSUE

The issue of how many U.S. dealerships GM can support has been one of the hot-button issues for U.S. officials as they drive GM toward a stepped-up restructuring that many observers have now concluded will include a bankruptcy filing.

GM ended 2008 with over 6,200 dealers in the United States and had presented a plan to the U.S. autos task force, run by former investment banker Steve Rattner, that would have cut that by about 25 percent to near 4,100 over the next five years as dealers shut down or merged. 

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U.S. consumer spending probably slowed in February as business investment and housing tumbled, underscoring the urgency of government efforts to thwart a deeper recession, economists said before reports this week.

Purchases rose 0.2 percent after gaining 0.6 percent in January, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of Commerce Department figures due March 27. Combined sales of new and existing homes likely dropped to the lowest level in at least a decade and orders for durable goods fell for a seventh straight month, other reports may show.

Mounting job losses and shrinking wealth are squeezing the consumer spending that makes up about 70 percent of the economy as Americans forego expensive items such as cars and homes. The economy may keep shrinking until Obama administration and Federal Reserve initiatives to calm credit markets take hold.

“Consumers will be more inclined to put off bigger-ticket purchases until they start to see a deceleration in job losses,” said Maxwell Clarke, chief U.S. economist at IDEAglobal in New York. Clarke said the first half of this year is “mostly about getting our legs back under us,” and that a recovery won’t happen until later this year.

Commerce’s spending report may also show incomes fell for the third time in the past four months, economists said.

Purchases of existing homes fell 0.9 percent last month to an annual pace of 4.45 million, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed. The National Association of Realtors’ report is due tomorrow.

Durable Goods

Sales of new homes, due from Commerce on March 25, probably fell 2.9 percent in February to an annual pace of 300,000, the survey median shows. That would bring the combined sales rate to 4.75 million, the lowest since comparable figures began in January 1999.

Also on March 25, Commerce figures may show bookings for goods meant to last several years fell 2.4 percent in February, according to the survey. Durable-goods orders excluding transportation also probably dropped.

The economy has lost 4.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and the unemployment rate in February jumped to 8.1 percent, the highest level since December 1983. The U.S. Postal Service last week said it will close offices, cut jobs and offer early retirement to about 150,000 workers.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is already down 15 percent this year following a 38 percent slide in 2008, its worst year since the Great Depression online payday loans.

Policy Moves

Fed figures showed household wealth fell by a record $5.1 trillion in the final quarter of 2008, as stock portfolios and home values plummet. The housing slump may extend well into its fourth year as rising foreclosures return more properties to the market and demand stays depressed.

President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus package, enacted last month, was designed to create or save millions of jobs and jolt the economy out of recession through infrastructure spending and tax cuts. A separate plan is aimed at stemming foreclosures and helping struggling homeowners manage their mortgage bills.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also is working on a plan to tackle the bad assets clogging banks’ balance sheets so they’ll resume normal lending to consumers and businesses.

The Fed, meanwhile, last week said it will buy as much as $300 billion of Treasuries and an additional $750 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities, and that the central bank will keep the benchmark interest rate near zero for an extended time.

Growth Data

Sales at U.S. retailers last month fell less than forecast and January’s gain was almost double the previous estimate, indicating the biggest part of the economy may be starting to stabilize. Still, a sustained recovery in purchases is unlikely while consumers worry about losing their paychecks.

The downturn is hurting companies from home builder Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction equipment, to automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, now dependent on government loans.

Commerce releases the last of three economic growth estimates on March 26, which may show the economy shrank at a 6.6 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter as consumer spending plunged, according to the survey. The contraction in gross domestic product would be deeper than the government’s prior projection and the worst since 1980.

FedEx Corp., a bellwether for the economy as the second- biggest American package deliverer, last week reported its first sales drop in at least a decade. The economy “will definitely be weak” for all of 2009, Chief Executive Officer Fred Smith said, though he doesn’t anticipate a “further significant decline.”

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Blackstone Group () has invested more than $730 million in India since arriving three years ago, only to see much of it wiped out by the country’s weakening economy and stock market plunge.

Blackstone’s tough start in India is a cautionary tale to other Western private equity firms such as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Permira that are opening offices in Mumbai.

If newcomers weren’t already wary of India’s foreign investing rules, which forbid borrowing and set a purchase price range, certainly Blackstone’s performance so far may give them pause. Entrenched firms, too, are likely to wait before pouncing.

Blackstone is not the only private equity firm watching its Indian investments take a hit, as Warburg Pincus can attest.

But unlike Warburg and other private equity players, Blackstone is relatively new to India. It hasn’t been there long enough to sell stakes to balance losses with gains.

What’s worse, it appears to have done most of its eight Indian deals at the very top of the market.

Blackstone says it remains a long term investor in India.

“Short-term capital market volatility does not alter our investment thesis nor does it impact our commitment to an investee company,” Blackstone India head Akhil Gupta said in an email reply to questions about the portfolio payday advance.

“We are long term investors who are focused on adding value to portfolio companies over long periods of time.”

New York-based Blackstone, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, launched plans to expand in Asia in 2005, choosing India as its first destination after hiring Gupta from Reliance Industries () to run the Mumbai-based team.

India’s economy, despite a slowdown, is still growing significantly. Companies and infrastructure projects are hungry for foreign capital. Foreign money is attracted to future growth prospects and the ability to buy into assets on the cheap.

The broader Indian market fell 52 percent last year, its sharpest annual fall after a five-year bull run that saw the benchmark rise six fold.

How quickly the economic climate stabilizes is up for debate.

BLACKSTONE IN INDIA

Shares of Nagarjuna Construction () have fallen 71 percent since Blackstone agreed to invest $150 million in August 2007. Garment maker Gokaldas Exports () has also lost 71 percent of its value since Blackstone inked a deal that same month for $165 million. 

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Mexico’s central bank will probably reduce its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than 2 1/2 years to help bolster the country’s slumping economy.

The bank’s five-member board, led by Governor Guillermo Ortiz, will cut the lending rate a half percentage point to 7.75 percent, according to 14 of 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Eight analysts expect a quarter-point decrease, one foresees a full point cut and four economists say the bank will keep the rate unchanged.

Lower rates may give a boost to Mexico’s economy, which Ortiz has said will probably contract this year because of the global financial crisis. The bank has room to cut without concern it will spur inflation because weakening consumer demand, and a government plan to trim energy costs, will moderate price increases, said Alfredo Coutino, a senior economist for Latin America at Moody’s Economy.com.

“The prospects for inflation have improved tremendously,” said Coutino, who is based in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “There is a high probability the central bank will start to relax monetary policy.”

Ortiz said Jan. 12 that Mexico’s gross domestic product will probably shrink in 2009 and that the government’s plan to reduce energy costs would allow the bank to adopt a monetary policy that “helps to mitigate the drop in economic growth.”

Lower interest rates can help prompt businesses to invest and consumers to buy on credit. Cheaper loans also can spur inflation by strengthening demand. The bank hasn’t cut rates since April 2006.

Price Freezes

On Jan. 7, President Felipe Calderon announced that state oil and power companies would freeze gasoline prices, reduce heating gas costs and lower electricity rates for some industries as part of a financial stimulus package. The initiative on energy costs will help slow inflation to about 4 percent by the end of 2009, said Fernando Losada, an economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc payday loan. in New York.

Still, policy makers may be hesitant to cut rates on concern that inflation, already at a seven-year high, won’t cool. Prices climbed 6.53 percent in December from a year earlier as a weaker peso drove up the cost of imported goods.

Inflation concerns may prompt policy makers to keep rates unchanged or make a smaller, quarter-point cut, said Bartosz Pawlowski, a strategist at TD Securities Ltd. in London.

“Inflation is still very high,” said Pawlowski, who says a cut to 8 percent is most likely. “A weaker exchange rate means higher import prices.”

Mexico’s Economy

The economy will contract in the first half of this year as scarce credit in international markets hurts investment and smaller remittances from Mexicans living abroad damps consumption, Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said Jan. 9. The economy contracted last quarter, Ortiz said last week.

Third-quarter economic growth of 1.6 percent was the lowest in five years. The country’s manufacturing index fell to a record low in December, the sixth straight month the index showed a contraction. A government report last week showed the economy, as measured by the country’s global economic indicator, shrank 0.9 percent in October.

Calderon’s stimulus plan, which includes increased infrastructure spending and unemployment benefits, will add 120 billion pesos ($8.6 million) to the economy, or about 1 percent of gross domestic product, Miguel Messmacher, the Mexican Finance Ministry’s chief economist, said Jan. 7.

“The Mexican economy is already in recession and the recession is going to deepen,” Pawlowski said. “There will be scope for rate cuts at each and every meeting from now on.”

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China’s 3 trillion yuan ($440 billion) insurance industry was largely insulated from the U.S. subprime crisis that hit AIG (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and other foreign firms, but the fallout poses the toughest challenge in a decade as profits tumble and demand for insurance products slumps.

China’s cautious regulators reined in the overseas adventures of aggressive insurers, limiting direct damage from the global financial meltdown largely to Ping An Insurance’s (2318.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601318.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) 15.7 billion yuan loss on its investment in Dutch-Belgian financial group Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

But as the financial turmoil evolves into a global recession that has chilled China’s red-hot economy, investment returns are shrinking and premium growth is slowing or even turning negative.

For industry giants China Life Insurance Co (2628.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601628.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s largest insurer by market capitalization, and Ping An, the second-largest, this means tumbling profits and share prices.

Smaller players, however, face graver dangers that have prompted even stricter government supervision.

“The risks in the insurance industry have just begun emerging,” said Xiao Chaohu, analyst at Everbright Securities Co.

“Small insurers may face liquidity problems if premium incomes keep falling while redemptions and claims rise.”

China’s insurance sector has more than 100 foreign and domestic players, although more than half of the market is controlled by China Life and Ping An payday loans.

About one-10th of insurers cannot meet capital adequacy standards required by regulators, Xiao said.

INDIRECT IMPACT

The official Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday that China’s insurance regulators had stepped up their monitoring of life insurers’ liquidity conditions, concerned that falling asset prices and rising redemptions could hurt their cash flow.

“In the long term, China’s insurance industry will mainly suffer from the indirect impact of the financial crisis,” China Life President Wan Feng said in an e-mailed comment to Reuters.

“If the economy slides into a deep, prolonged recession and capital markets remain sluggish, insurers’ investment returns will fall sharply … and demand for insurance products will weaken,” Wan said.

China Life’s Hong Kong-listed shares are down nearly 50 percent since the start of the year, in line with the benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI, although Ping An, punished by investors for its overseas setbacks, has fallen by nearly two-thirds.

Ping An posted a $1.15 billion third-quarter loss due to its failed investment in Fortis but could well have found its survival under threat, analysts said, if it had proceeded with a $17 billion fund-raising plan to finance overseas acquisitions. 

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South Korea’s central bank cut interest rates for the third time in a month on Friday to soothe markets and shore up its economy, after a flurry of deep rate cuts across Europe failed to calm panicky investors.

Central bank action could not halt a slide in global stock markets and coincided with a warning by the International Monetary Fund that the developed economies were headed for the first full-year contraction since the World War Two in 2009.

“Increasingly, the signs point to a deep and synchronized global recession that began last quarter and has gathered momentum,” said Bruce Kasman, an economist at JPMorgan Chase in New York.

The IMF cut its 2009 global growth forecast to 2.2 percent from 3 percent, a prediction made only last month, and urged governments to ramp up spending to support the economy.

Asian stocks fell for a third day and commodity prices also tumbled, as layoffs and corporate profit warnings piled up.

Later on Friday, Barack Obama is due to hold his first news conference since winning the U.S. presidency after a meeting with his economic team, as the world awaits signs of how he might tackle the economic crisis.

Markets are particularly keen to learn who will become Obama’s Treasury Secretary, but it was not clear when he might announce his choice.

Among those seen as leading candidates for the job are Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers; and former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker easy online payday loans.

Investors also looked anxiously ahead to Friday’s U.S. jobs payroll report for October, which is expected to further underscore the weakening economy.

According to the median of a Reuters forecast of 87 economists another 200,000 non-farm jobs were shed last month, which would be the largest monthly cut in jobs since March 2003 and would mark a 10th straight month of losses.

CORPORATE WOES

In Asia, Toyota saw its stock overwhelmed with sell orders and tumbling as much as 12 percent, after it halved its profit forecast because of dwindling demand. The carmaker’s stock had fallen 10 percent on Thursday ahead of the profit warning.

Its woes illustrate how the financial crisis, which started when the housing boom in the United States turned sour 15 months ago, has spread from Wall Street to Main Street.

Hit by economic slowdown, sliding property prices and a sharp fall in its capital markets business, Singapore’s DBS Group, Southeast Asia’s biggest bank, suffered a bigger-than-expected 38 percent drop in profit, as bad debt charges quadrupled. Its shares fell 9 percent.

As investors are bracing themselves for a dismal set of quarterly results from General Motors and Ford on Friday, industry sources said their chief executives sought a $50 billion federal bailout to survive a financial crunch blamed on a worsening economy and the “near collapse” in demand for cars. 

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U.S. consumers slashed spending in October, shunning purchases of items over $1,000, as a global financial crisis battered their savings accounts and their psyches, according to figures released on Wednesday by SpendingPulse, the retail data service of MasterCard Advisors.

“The numbers for October are very negative across the board,” said Michael McNamara, vice president at MasterCard Advisors, of sales figures tracked by SpendingPulse.

“Any area that deals with consumer durables, especially areas like furniture, electronics and appliances … that relies heavily on sales purchases that exceed $1,000 in value are under significant pressure,” he said.

SpendingPulse data is derived from aggregate sales in the MasterCard U.S. payment network, coupled with estimates on all other payments including cash and checks.

The data provides an early glimpse into the strength of retailers’ monthly sales, which will be released by chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Saks Inc (SKS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and American Eagle Outfitters Inc (AEO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), later this week.

Wall Street is already bracing for weak sales. Consumers clamped down on spending as the financial crisis that began in September swept into October, roiling stock markets, erasing trillions of dollars in wealth and raising the prospect of a deep global recession.

According to SpendingPulse, October specialty apparel sales fell 12.2 percent from a year earlier. Women’s apparel sales dropped 18 low fee pay day loans.2 percent, while men’s apparel sales fell 8.3 percent. Footwear sales dropped 9.7 percent.

Sales of electronics and appliances tumbled 19.9 percent, compared with a decline of 13.8 percent in September.

“If you take out the purchases above $1,000, the sector is really down about 10 percent,” McNamara said. “Sales above $1,000 just aren’t really moving.”

That trend, along with further weakness in the housing sector, also hurt demand for home-related merchandise. Furniture sales dropped 15.1 percent in October from a year ago, while sales of home furnishings, or decor, fell 20.6 percent.

High-end retailers took a hit, with luxury sales dropping 20.1 percent, compared with a 4.8 percent drop in September.

“The sector has been down five consecutive months, but October was a more significant decline,” he said.

While luxury shoppers continued spending in the face of rising fuel and food prices earlier this year, the group has retrenched as the global financial crisis hits investment portfolios and devalues real estate holdings.

SpendingPulse also found that e-commerce sales declined 3.9 percent. McNamara said purchasing volume rose, but shoppers were buying cheaper items, driving down total sales results.

In a bright spot, restaurant sales rose three-tenths of one percent in October, with sales at fast food restaurants rising 1 percent. 

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EDINBURGH–Fresh from a surprise election victory, Scotland’s leader, Alex Salmond, vowed last year to win independence from the United Kingdom and with it, bring a wave of prosperity.

Salmond, whose separatist Scottish National Party won control of Scotland’s national Parliament last May from Britain’s governing Labour Party, has long aspired to end the 300-year union with England. He wants to take control of lucrative oil and natural gas reserves, slash corporate tax rates and transform this country of five million into an economic powerhouse.

But that was before the global financial meltdown redrew the economic map. Salmond once dreamed of a North Atlantic "arc of prosperity" stretching from Ireland through Iceland and Scotland to Norway. Now, his nation’s similar-sized neighbours are struggling with the ravages of the downturn.

Iceland, held up by Scottish nationalists as an example of how smaller nations can transform their fortunes, is possibly headed toward bankruptcy, while Ireland has slumped into recession.

At home, two of Scotland’s iconic businesses – the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Halifax Bank of Scotland – have found themselves savaged by the economic turmoil.

RBS is now partly owned by British – not just Scottish – taxpayers, who’ll also have a major stake in HBOS if it finalizes a combination with Lloyds TSB after a rescue deal was brokered by Salmond’s nemesis and fellow Scot, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

It has left Salmond’s claims that Scotland can cope without leadership from London, and his hopes of winning an independence vote in 2010, in tatters.

A year ago, RBS – Scotland’s largest business – was a proud emblem of economic prowess as it led buyouts of Dutch bank ABN AMRO and the Belgian-Dutch Fortis bank, turning in pre-tax profits in 2007 of £10 billion, or $20 internet pay day loans.3 billion (Canadian). Now it’s partly nationalized and has taken a £20 billion handout from the British government. If the combination of HBOS and Lloyds TSB goes ahead, the new bank will take a similar £16 billion cash injection.

Brown – a robust defender of the United Kingdom – claims that without England, Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland could never have afforded to bail out its own banks. He suggests an independent Scotland would have an annual GDP of only about £100 billion, in contrast to a British annual total of around £2 trillion.

But Salmond argues that membership in the United Kingdom seems only to be dragging Scotland down.

Unemployment in Scotland rose by 19,000 people in September, economic growth slowed to 0.1 per cent and, according to the Nationwide Building Society, the nation’s once-booming housing sector saw prices drop by 5 per cent.

He said Brown’s "age of irresponsibility" was over. "The new age of responsibility means Scotland taking charge of its own destiny with independence," Salmond wrote.

Though Salmond, a former economist with RBS, has enjoyed an extended honeymoon in the 18 months since his party took power as a minority government at the Scottish Parliament, support for independence remains low. Most polls show that less than a third of Scots currently want to leave the union.

But Salmond’s SNP trounced Brown’s Labour Party in a special election for a British Parliament seat in Glasgow in July and is predicted to win again on Nov. 6 when a second special election takes place.

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In a move to dramatically cut costs and better compete with Intel Corp., chip maker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. said Tuesday it will spin off its factories into a new joint venture with investors in the Persian Gulf state of Abu Dhabi.

The deal should shore up AMD’s (AMD, Fortune 500) finances and let it focus on the design and development of computer chips.

The new venture, to be based in the U.S. and for now called Foundry Co., will include AMD’s manufacturing plants, including two in Dresden, Germany.

In conjunction with the spin off, Abu Dhabi’s investment arm, Mubadala Development Co., will invest $314 million to more than double its current stake in AMD to 19.3% from 8.1%.

Another entity backed by the Persian Gulf state, Advanced Technology Investment Co., will invest $2.1 billion for a stake in Foundry Co., which also will assume about $1.2 billion of AMD’s existing debt.

Advanced Technology Investment then plans to contribute between $3.6 billion and $6 billion to Foundry Co. over the next five years to fund the expansion of the company’s chip-making capacity. That plan includes the construction of a new facility in Saratoga County, New York.

Sunnyvale, Calif.-based AMD, the world’s No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors, has been saddled with debt and hurt by product delays.

Hector Ruiz stepped aside as CEO in July as pressure grew for the company to improve its finances and regain its competitive edge against Intel (INTC, Fortune 500). AMD lost $1 (payday loan).19 billion in the second quarter, nearly double its losses from a year earlier.

AMD’s finances have also been hurt by its 2006 acquisition of graphics chip maker ATI Technologies. As part of that buyout, AMD absorbed divisions that make chips for cell phones and digital television sets. Both were underperforming, and AMD wrote down their value by $876 million.

AMD replaced Ruiz with Dirk Meyer, who had been president and chief operating officer, and focused on developing a strategy for cutting its manufacturing expenses, which are large for any semiconductor company but particularly troubling for AMD as it burns through cash and faces fierce competition with Intel.

"With The Foundry Company, AMD has developed an innovative way to focus our efforts on design while maintaining access to the leading-edge manufacturing technologies that our business needs without the required capital-intensive investments of semiconductor manufacturing," Meyer said in a statement.

Foundry’s board will be made up of executives from AMD, which will own 44.4% of the company, and Advanced Technology Investment, which will own 55.6%.

An AMD senior vice president, Doug Grose, is to become chief executive of Foundry Co., and Ruiz, who had been AMD chairman, will step down to take on that post at Foundry Co.

The transaction is expected to close at the beginning of 2009, pending regulatory approvals. 

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