ECONOMY

WHITE HOUSE RAISES PROJECTION FOR GDP GROWTH

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration issued yesterday a slightly more optimistic forecast for economic growth this year. The White House is predicting that the gross domestic product will grow by 3.5% as measured from the fourth quarter of last year to the fourth quarter of this year, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. That compares with the administration’s summer estimate of 3.4%.

– Associated Press

CABLE

CABLEVISION’S DOLAN ENDORSES ‘A LA CARTE’ OPTION

The chairman of Cablevision, Charles Dolan, said letting cable-television customers order only the channels they want won’t hurt cable providers or networks.

Customers would benefit from so-called a la carte service, Mr. Dolan said, echoing comments made this week by the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin. Mr. Dolan is the first leader of an American cable company to endorse the pricing system after Mr. Martin signaled the FCC might support the practice.

– Bloomberg News

ENERGY

GOLDMAN, CARLYLE GROUP, AND RIVERSTONE BACK NEW OIL EXPLORER

Goldman Sachs Group and Carlyle Group-Riverstone Holdings investment funds are putting up $500 million to back a new oil and natural gas explorer led by the former president of Unocal. Houston-based Cobalt International Energy will focus on deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico and overseas, the chief executive of the new company, Joseph Bryant, said yesterday in a statement.

– Bloomberg News

WALL STREET

NEW RECORD SET IN $4 MILLION SALE OF NYSE SEAT

A New York Stock Exchange membership, or “seat,” was sold yesterday for $4 million, setting a new alltime high and continuing the Big Board’s recent string of record-setting seat sales.

The latest transaction marks a jump of $500,000, or 14.3%, from the previous seat sale on November 22, which itself had been a record. NYSE seats have rebounded strongly since falling to $975,000 in January, the lowest level in recent years. Much of the gains have come after the NYSE announced in April that it was acquiring Archipelago Holdings and going public.

– Dow Jones Newswires

HEDGE FUNDS

MILLENNIUM PARTNERS TO PAY $180 MILLION IN SETTLEMENT

Millennium Partners, a $5 billion hedge fund company accused of improper mutual fund trading, agreed to pay $180 million in a settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Millennium, run by Israel Englander, defrauded fund companies from 2000 to 2003 by rapidly buying and selling mutual fund shares, a practice known as market timing, which drove up costs for long-term investors, Mr. Spitzer and the SEC alleged.

– Bloomberg News

PUBLISHING

CONRAD BLACK PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO FRAUD CHARGES

CHICAGO – Conrad Black pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges yesterday in connection with the alleged looting of more than $80 million from the Hollinger International newspaper empire he once controlled.

The 61-year-old Lord Black was arraigned in U.S. District Court, two weeks after being indicted and accused of cheating on taxes and pilfering millions from the company. Lord Black lambasted the charges last week, calling them “absolute nonsense” and “one massive smear job from A to Z.”

[Hollinger International is a minority investor in The New York Sun.]

– Associated Press

IN BRIEF

JPMorgan Chase & Company and four more banks are underwriting about $14 billion of junk bonds and loans to fund the purchase of TDC, Denmark’s former phone monopoly, in Europe’s biggest leveraged buyout … The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2000 … General Motors and Ford Motor’s November sales of cars and trucks in America fell as demand slumped further for large and midsize sport-utility vehicles, and both automakers reduced production plans. Sales rose at Toyota and Honda.

– Bloomberg News