Business Briefs for July 2

VIRGINIA

Two executives from area receive honors

NEW YORK -- Two Richmond-area executives were among five chief financial officers honored last night at the Virginia CFO Awards banquet.

Thomas N. Chewning, who retired June 1 from Dominion Resources Inc., received the top award for CFOs of publicly traded Virginia companies.

Fernando Gutierrez of the American Red Cross-Greater Richmond Chapter was named top CFO for small nonprofit organizations with fewer than 100 employees.

The award recipients in the three other categories were:

• Large private companies: Mark Baumgartner Liberty Tax Service of Virginia Beach.

• Large nonprofit organizations: Maurice W. Scherrens of George Mason University.

• Small private companies: Andrea M. Kilmer of The ESG Companies in Virginia Beach.

This year's winners were picked from 60 nominees.

The awards are sponsored by Virginia Business magazine, a statewide business magazine owned by Media General Inc.

Smithfield subsidiary workers OK contract

Employees in rural North Carolina at the world's largest pork slaughterhouse agreed yesterday to a four-year contract with a Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary, concluding a labor-organizing fight in the country's least-unionized state.

The contract, which took effect immediately, affects about 5,000 workers at the Smithfield Packing Co. plant in Tar Heel, N.C. Workers accepted the company's contract offer after two days of voting that ended yesterday.

Smithfield-based Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest hog producer and pork processor, began negotiating the contract in February after workers narrowly voted in December to back a union.

Genworth sees benefit from federal program

Genworth Financial Inc. said that its U.S. mortgage-insurance business is seeing positive results from the federal Home Affordability Refinance Program.

Henrico County-based Genworth implemented the program days after it was announced March 4.

After a HARP refinance, borrowers' interest rates, on average, go down 1.5 percentage points, and monthly mortgage payments are reduced an average 13.5 percent. Genworth, which insures mortgage loans for lenders, is working with its large lender customers to help implement HARP programs.

THE NATION

GM funding at risk if asset sale not approved

A senior member of President Barack Obama's auto task force testified yesterday that the U.S. government will not continue to fund General Motors Corp.'s operations if the automaker doesn't get approval to sell its assets to a new company within the next 10 days.

The No. 1 U.S. automaker's government-backed plan for a quick exit from Chapter 11 hinges on the sale plan, which would allow it to leave behind many of the costs and liabilities that have made the company unprofitable in the past.

Elsewhere

• The Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously approved rules requiring greater transparency for executive compensation at bailed-out firms and all public companies. The rule requires firms that received government bailouts to let shareholders vote on executive pay.

• James M. Davis, 60, Stanford Financial Group's ex-chief financial officer, reached a deal with prosecutors in which he'll plead guilty to three counts alleging he helped swindle investors out of $7 billion.

• Mortgage giant Freddie Mac received $6.1 billion in new funds from the Treasury Department, according to a regulatory filing. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which operated Freddie Mac since last fall, requested the funds after Freddie Mac liabilities exceeded its assets by more than $6 billion.

• Retailer Crabtree & Evelyn Ltd. filed for Chapter 11 protection because of pressure to repay its debt. Management changes also had resulted in several shifts in strategy, hurting its wholesale business. The retailer runs 126 stores, including one at Regency Square mall in Henrico and four others in Virginia.

• Anheuser-Busch InBev said it will sell four U.S. packaging plants to Ball Corp. for $577 million to help pay off debt. Ball has promised to offer employment to the 635 active employees of the plants in Fort Atkinson, Wis.; Columbus, Ohio; Rome, Ga.; and Gainesville, Fla. The plants will continue to supply Anheuser-Busch with metal drink cans and lids.

• Dow Chemical Co. said it will close three Louisiana plants as part of a shift away from basic chemicals toward the lucrative business of specialty chemicals.

• American Apparel Inc., a clothing manufacturer and retailer, said that the government has found that 1,800 of its employees are either illegally working in the U.S. or potentially illegal to work. Those employees comprise about one-third of the clothier's Los Angeles manufacturing operation. The company operates a store in Carytown.

• CenturyTel Inc. has completed its purchase of Embarq Corp. The companies said they would continue operating with the separate brands for now.

-- From Staff and Wire Reports