CITYWIDE

NEW AD CAMPAIGN AIMS TO DRAW MORE VISITORS TO CITY

The city’s tourism bureau, NYC & Company, plans to launch an advertising campaign to attract foreign visitors that will feature an original song, “New York: For the Time of Your Life,” composed by Broadway lyricist Frank Wyldehorn. The song will be part of a video produced free by HBO that will feature all five boroughs in an attempt to match the record 6.8 million foreign visitors who traveled to the city in 2000.

The promotion will attempt to renew interest in New York City among international visitors. The city suffered a 32% drop in international visitors after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Recent forecasts, however, show an expected 10.2% rise in foreign visitors to the city, totaling 5.3 million foreign visitors by the end of the fiscal year, according to NYC & Company. The tourism agency is hoping CNN International will agree to run 30-second commercials based on the video. Two years ago, NYC & Company made a video made for Japanese visitors featuring New York Yankees star Hideki Matsui.

– Special to the Sun

NATIONAL

VISTEON SAYS FORD TO TAKE OVER 24 PLANTS IN BAILOUT

Visteon Corporation, the second-biggest American auto-parts maker, said former parent Ford Motor Company agreed to take over 24 plants, bailing out its largest supplier for the third time in 17 months. Taking back the plants will cost Ford about $1.15 billion, including as much as $650 million this year, the Dearborn, Mich.-based carmaker said yesterday. Ford, the second-biggest American automaker, will put the plants and its 17,400 workers in a holding company for possible sale. Ford plans to cut about 5,000 of those workers over the next four years. Shedding plants may help Van Buren, Mich.-based Visteon stave off bankruptcy after losing 95% of its net worth since its 2000 spin-off from Ford.

– Bloomberg News

EXXON MOBIL SHAREHOLDERS REJECT ENVIRONMENTAL RESOLUTIONS

Shareholders of Exxon Mobil Corporation, the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer, voted down resolutions calling on the company to take steps toward reducing emissions linked to global warming.

All three environmental initiatives on the ballot at Exxon Mobil’s annual meeting yesterday in Dallas received less than 30% support, according to preliminary results released by the Irving, Texas-based company.

Two of the proposals were made by shareholder Christian Brothers Investment Services, which wanted Exxon Mobil to estimate the investment needed to curb climate change associated with use of petroleum-based fuels.

Christian Brothers also called on Exxon Mobil to explain any reservations its scientists have with climate-change findings by an international panel. John Wilson, who helps manage $3.8 billion, including $32 million in Exxon Mobil shares, at Christian Brothers, said May 23 that the chief executive, Lee Raymond, and other Exxon Mobil executives have couched public references to climate change in language that suggests global warming is an unproven theory.

– Bloomberg News

REGULATORY

HOUSE PANEL PASSES FANNIE MAE, FREDDIE MAC BILL

A congressional panel yesterday approved legislation that would create a stricter regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in response to $13 billion in accounting errors at the mortgage finance companies since 2003.

The House Financial Services Committee voted 65-5 to create a federal overseer with authority to cut the companies’ combined $1.5 trillion mortgage portfolios, deny new lines of business, alter capital standards, and sell off the assets of a company in the event of default.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri intends to bring the bill soon to the House for a vote, said Representative Robert Ney of Ohio, a Republican on the panel.

– Bloomberg News