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.
TOBACCO
UPS TO HALT SHIPPING OF CIGARETTES
The world’s largest shipping carrier, UPS, will stop delivering cigarettes to individuals in America under an agreement announced yesterday with state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
The agreement is the latest in federal and state efforts to combat the sale of under-taxed cigarettes and to fight underage smoking. Most under-taxed or untaxed cigarettes are sold by Indian tribes, where the taxation of sales to non-Indians is disputed. The agreement leaves only the U.S. Postal Service among major carriers to continue to deliver cigarettes to individuals, Mr. Spitzer said. He called that practice “an embarrassment.” Mr. Spitzer continues to negotiate with Federal Express, but they are thought to handle a small amount of the trade, said a Spitzer spokesman, Marc Violette.
– Associated Press
BUYOUT FUNDS
KOHLBERG KRAVIS RAISES $5.4B FOR EUROPEAN BUYOUT FUND
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, which led the world’s biggest-ever leveraged buyout, raised $5.4 billion for its second European buyout fund after profiting from its earlier round of investments on the continent.
The firm beat its 3 billion-euro target for the fund, New York-based KKR said yesterday in a statement. KKR raised the money after investing a $3 billion European fund raised in 1999.That fund has earned five times its original investments in the six companies it’s sold so far, according to documents sent to investors in the new fund. “They have clearly delivered returns and are expected to deliver returns in the future,” said Carol Kennedy, a partner at London-based Pantheon Ventures, which manages about $8 billion. “A lot of people thought the Americans coming over here wouldn’t do very well.” The new fund, which took about 10 months to raise, will be Europe’s fourth-biggest.
– Bloomberg News
REAL ESTATE
CENDANT TO SPLIT INTO FOUR PARTS
The founder of Cendant, Henry Silverman, plans to break the travel and leisure company into four parts, seeking to revive a stock that never recovered from an accounting scandal eight years ago. The owner of the Avis car-rental and Days Inn hotel businesses also cut its earnings forecast.
Cendant’s real-estate, travel-distribution, hospitality, and vehicle-rental units will become separate publicly traded companies, according to a statement issued yesterday. New York-based Cendant will drop its name and Mr. Silverman will become chief executive of the travel company, ceasing control of the rest of the enterprise he built. The shares had their biggest drop in three years.
– Bloomberg News
IN BRIEF
American Express said third-quarter profit rose 17% to a record $1.03 billion as the company issued more cards and customers used them more often … Morgan Stanley’s Prime Property Fund agreed to buy AMLI Residential Properties Trust for $2.1 billion, adding more than 28,300 apartments to its portfolio of office, retail, industrial, and residential properties … The yen rose for a third day in four against the dollar after an adviser to the People’s Bank of China said a stronger Chinese currency is “inevitable.”
– Bloomberg News