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Nestle bypasses finance chief in picking new CEO

By Times staff and wires
Published September 21, 2007

VEVY, SWITZERLAND - Nestle SA, the world's biggest food company, appointed Paul Bulcke as chief executive, surprising analysts who expected finance head Paul Polman to get the job and pushing the shares down the most in a month. Bulcke, 53, who heads Nestle's Americas division, will take over on April 10, the company said Thursday. Peter Brabeck, a 62-year-old Austrian and the CEO for 10 years, will remain chairman. Analysts say Polman was the architect of a buyback plan that sent the shares surging last month.

Sallie Mae will hold banks to contract
WASHINGTON - SLM Corp., commonly known as Sallie Mae, said Thursday it expects the investors seeking to buy it for $25-billion to honor their commitments. "Our contract is with Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, two of America's largest and strongest banks," the nation's largest student lender said. "We expect these banks to honor their commitments under that contract, not breach the contract," which includes a $900-million breakup fee. SLM issued the statement in response to a New York Times report, attributed to anonymous sources, that said the buyout consortium, which is led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co., plans to seek a lower price.

Nasdaq maneuvers for control of OMX
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The Nasdaq Stock Market is selling a nearly 20 percent stake to Borse Dubai and is taking control of the Nordic exchange operator OMX as part of a sweeping settlement of its battle for control of OMX. In a global stock market shakeup. Borse Dubai and a group from Qatar also moved to become the largest stakeholders in the London Stock Exchange. The deals announced Thursday would help the U.S.-based Nasdaq avoid a bidding war with cash-rich Borse Dubai for OMX.

UAW chief shelves retiree health care
DETROIT - United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger has decided to temporarily shelve talk with General Motors Corp. about the union taking over retiree health care, but the issue remains part of the bargaining, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The AP, citing an anonymous source, reported Gettelfinger rejected GM's latest retiree health care proposal on Tuesday night and wanted to move to other issues. GM is the lead company in talks with the union.

Medical center owners arrested
TAMPA - State insurance agents on Thursday arrested the owners of Bella Mar Medical Center in Tampa on charges of insurance fraud and patient brokering. Yusimy Martinez, 32, and her husband, Isidoro, 40, allegedly tricked a car-accident victim into submitting insurance claims for treatments that Bella Mar never provided. Yusimy Martinez also allegedly told the client that they could make money together by staging a future accident. According to records maintained by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the couple were arrested in June on charges of insurance fraud and grand theft, and Yusimy Martinez was arrested in April for allegedly passing worthless checks.

[Last modified September 20, 2007, 23:42:08]