Business Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
INTERNATIONAL
DISCOUNT AGREES TO BUY BELLSOUTH’S CELLCOM HOLDING
Discount Investment Corporation, an Israeli holding company, agreed to buy BellSouth Corporation’s 34.8% stake in Cellcom Israel for $626 million to take control of Israel’s largest cell-phone company.
The transaction values Cellcom at about $1.8 billion and is expected to be completed in the second half of the year, Discount said in statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange today. Discount’s stake in Cellcom would rise to 59.8%, though its final holding may change, the company said.
The acquisition by Discount, which is 67% owned by IDB Holding Corporation, may help form a bigger competitor to Bezeq, Israel’s largest telecommunications company. Tel Aviv-based IDB, under Chairman Nochi Dankner, also owns GlobCall Communications, a seller of business communications services, and has holdings in NetVision, an Internet service provider.
– Bloomberg News
NATIONAL
REPORT: SEC CONSIDERING COMPLAINT AGAINST GENERAL RE OFFICIAL
The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering civil penalties against Rick Napier, an executive at one of Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance companies, according to a report yesterday on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site.
On Friday, billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced that civil penalties were being considered by the SEC against a senior vice president at subsidiary General Reinsurance over alleged violations of securities laws, but did not name the executive who received the so-called Wells notice on May 2.
General Reinsurance has been under a federal probe over some of its reinsurance transactions with Reciprocal of America, and American International Group. AIG admitted that its accounting for a General Re deal was improper.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Napier, who is based in Stamford, Conn., was one of several General Re executives who was aware that the reinsurance transaction with AIG didn’t carry enough risk to qualify for favorable accounting status.
– Associated Press
